16/10/2025 23:58
Lando Norris has taken full accountability and responsibility for
the collision with McLaren team-mate, and Formula 1 title rival,
Oscar Piastri in the Singapore Grand Prix. On the opening lap of
the Singapore race, Norris dived up the inside of Piastri at Turn
2, but clipped the rear of Max Verstappen's car. This contact with
the Red Bull tipped Norris to the right and into the front-left
wheel of Piastri, who was irate over the radio and requested a
swap-back of positions. This did not happen as the Australian
finished fourth to Norris's third, with the Briton trimming
Piastri's lead in the drivers' championship to 22 points with 174
remaining across the final six rounds. Speaking ahead of the United
States GP, Norris described how discussions between the team and
the drivers had left him being held "accountable", which is a
position he described as "fair." "Well, it has got nothing to do
with you guys, but of course there were talks, which were
inevitable , and the team held me accountable , which I think is
fair," Norris told media , including RacingNews365. "Then we made
progress from there on, understanding what the repercussions were
for myself and to avoid something definitely worse happening than
what did. "As I said after Singapore, this is the last thing I
want to happen is to cause these kinds of controversial talks after
the race, and I put just as much risk of putting myself out of the
race as whoever I am racing against, whether it is Oscar or anyone
else. "So it is clearly something I want to avoid, and it has been
one of my strengths since coming into F1, of avoiding contact in
general and keeping myself in the race. "One thing we've done well
as a team is using and progressing the framework that we have to
allow both of us to trust each other and the team, and that's why
we're a stronger team than anyone else." When questioned further by
RacingNews365 as to why McLaren had decided to hold him
accountable, given it had initially cleared him at Marina Bay,
Norris explained that the contact between the cars was key. "Well,
the simple answer is that there was contact between the two cars
and that's something which we always want to avoid," he said. "The
rule is not to crash into each other. This wasn't a crash; it was
much smaller, but we still don't even want to get to that point,
because it causes these types of things, and that is never good.
"In the end, I think the understanding is that it is racing, it is
always difficult to be perfect, I didn't want what happened to
happen, but I'm never going to let go of an opportunity like there
was. "There was a gap, I went for it, and what happened, happened,
but nothing changes from how we go racing, it is just that the team
and I want to avoid these types of things happening because there
was contact between the two McLarens. "Like us, Zak [Brown] and
Andrea [Stella] don't want that to happen, and as team-mates, we
don't want that to happen, so of course, that is the reason I was
held accountable."
