Lando Norris: McLaren driver apologises to Oscar Piastri and team for causing ‘silly’ Canadian GP collision | F1 News
A Contrite Lando Norris apologized to Oscar Piastri and McLaren after accepting the total blame for the “silly” collision with his teammate in the Canadian Grand Prix.
For the first time in their DUEL title this year in the type of incident that even the management of the team previously admitted was inevitable, the two McLarens contacted while they were fighting in the fourth place in the right pit with four laps to go in the middle of a tense finish in front in Montreal.
Having exchanged positions already at the end of the previous round, Norris tried to transmit Piastri in the interior of the main straight line, but poorly judged from the movement – hitting the rear tire of his teammate and crashing into the wall of the pit, undergoing immediate damage from the race.
Piastri’s car has also suffered damage, although the Australian can put himself under the subsequent safety car and keep fourth place.
Norris immediately reproached the radio of the McLaren team, saying: “I’m sorry. All my bad. All my fault. Stupid of me.”
He took a similar tone in his interviews after the race in the pen, where he apologized in person in Piastri.
Talk to Sky Sports F1Norris said: “No one to blame but myself, so I apologize to the whole team and to an Oscar also to have tried something probably a little too silly.
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The McLaren team reacts to the accident of Lando Norris when he tried to go beyond the teammate Oscar Piastri at the GP of Canada.
“Happy not to have spoiled his race. In the end, apologies to the team.”
Then, addressing the written media, Norris added: “The number one rule is not to contact your teammate, and that’s what I did,” said Norris.
“McLaren is my family and I run for them every weekend and try to do well for them on and out of the track. So, when I let them fall like that and I have been ridiculed as I did today, I have a lot of regret.
“I’m not proud of myself, I feel bad, so I apologize to everyone.
McLaren’s general manager Zak Brown said for as long as the fifth round of the season at the Saudi Grand Prix of April, as it was “definitely when, rather than” his two pilots could meet on the right track.
However, when an incident was perhaps expected for a long time internally, Norris has always admitted: “It was just more silly. It was not even a” race “, it was simply silly on my part.”
The incident spoke of Norris’s first retirement since the Austrian Grand Prix last June and saw him lower 22 points behind Piastri in the pilot championship.
Piastri: I don’t think there have been bad intentions involved
Although the collision ultimately did not cost him the fourth place he had occupied during most of the race, Piastri admitted that “obviously it is not ideal for anyone” in McLaren.
He added: “But if Lando took full responsibility, that’s how it happens.
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Karun Chandhok takes a closer look at the Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri collision in the latest stages of the Canadian GP.
The McLarens had started the fourth places apart on the grid with Pitri in third and Norris seventh, but entered the closing stadiums of the race in what has become a three -way fight with Kimi Antonelli de Mercedes for third place.
On an alternative tire strategy to his teammate after a longer speech on the hard tires, Norris was the fastest McLaren in the closing passage and after catching his teammate passed Piastri with a daring move in the interior of the hairpin on Tour 63.
Piastri then drafted Norris in the next back directly before, with the cars, then establishing a contact halfway from the next shorter right.
“He took a fairly big step on the turn 10, held mine in the chicane, and it was definitely a difficult but clean battle until that time,” said Piastri at the head of the accident.
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A side by side on the way Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s shock at the Canadian GP compared to a very similar incident between Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at the Chinese GP in 2011.
“I have not seen the incident, but I don’t think there were bad intentions, I think it was really unhappy. I’m going to go see obviously, but we both fight for a world championship and I am very grateful to the team they allow us to run.
“I don’t expect it to change anything in terms of this. We will continue to run throughout the year.”
“ There was no gap there ” – Experts “Confused by Norris” Cosetlow Move
Nico Rosberg of Sky Sports F1:
“We are grateful that McLaren has let them run because it brings us a lot of excitement. It was an incredible battle to watch the two compete.
“The Lando slit in the hairpin was beautiful and then was very strange, the error that Lando made. It is only more error of the many and it is a big mistake.
“He really signed up and stayed on the accelerator. There was no gap there. It’s a bit annoying.
“It is not too difficult to settle because Piastri did nothing and Andrea [Stella] Just speak to Lando and understand, not even to blame because it is a mistake of judgment, but go through it. “”
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George Russell, Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli reacted to the accident of Lando Norris after a battle with his teammate Oscar Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Danica Patrick de Sky Sports F1:
“I wonder if there is a little despair there for the dynamics that took place throughout the season.
“He could have gone to the right or get up. He came out of the chicane and had the momentum and in his head, there was no way to lift and he lacked space.
“Obviously, the good blow would have been on the right. Oscar was always going to defend this side of the track.”
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