Oscar Piastri shares what he told Lando Norris behind the scenes after their big crash at the Singapore GP.
Oscar Piastri has shared what happened when he talked with Lando Norris after they crashed in the final lap of the Singapore GP sprint race. The sprint race ended with a dramatic collision as Norris, the reigning Formula One champ, tried to pass Piastri, his teammate, on the last lap. This crash forced Piastri, who is from Australia, to retire from the race.
Norris got a lot of criticism from fans and experts, with many blaming him for what happened. But Piastri said that after they had a conversation, everything is now sorted between them.
Right after the race, Norris looked upset but defended his move, saying there was enough space for him to try to overtake, even though many fans disagreed. Because of the crash, Norris dropped from 5th to 8th place, losing three points, while Piastri had to stop just before finishing 4th, missing out on five points.
Still, when asked about it later, Piastri said he was fine with Norris after their talk. He was mostly sad because the crash cost McLaren seven points in total. “Yeah, we talked about it. It is what it is. It was a shame not to get points for the team, but we’ll be good, we’ll be fine, and we’ll keep moving forward,” Piastri told reporters.
Not everyone was this easy going—team boss Andrea Stella was really upset. In an interview with Sky Sports, he said the team was losing valuable points and that the crash was unacceptable.
“It’s been a long day. The sprint race was giving us good points, and even if we couldn’t win, we could still score well. But both McLarens crashed and went out. Lando got just one point, which is not enough. Seeing two McLarens collide is just not acceptable. We’ll talk privately with the drivers. The team comes first, no ego or one person is bigger than McLaren F1. We’ll make sure they understand this,” Stella said.
In the qualifying for the main race, Norris will start in 5th place and Piastri in 7th.
Norris insisted he thought he was right to make the move but later said he apologized to Piastri and even got “told off” by the McLaren team leaders. “We all talked about it as a team. I apologized, and that’s all you need to know,” he told Sky Sports F1. When asked again, he added, “I was told off.”