AUSTIN, Texas — Oscar Piastri insisted his collision with teammate and title rival Lando Norris in Austin’s sprint race was a racing incident.
Piastri went into Turn 1 at the Circuit of the Americas vying for second with Norris, who he leads by 22 points in the title race. Piastri had tangled with Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg while trying to pass Norris with a switch back, contact which catapulted him into Norris.
It was the second McLaren collision in two weeks, following their clash at Singapore, for which Norris was blamed by the team and which has come with internally-enforced “repercussions” — confirmed to have been sporting and not financial — for the Englishman as a result.
Despite it being Piastri’s move across Hulkenberg which appeared to trigger the latest incident, the championship leader said it would be wrong to attribute blame.
“I think for me, it’s a racing incident,” Piastri told reporters after qualifying. “You know, I was a long way away from the apex. And, you know, I think the cars behind were going in pretty deep into the corner.
“So, could I have done something a bit different? Maybe, yes, but that different thing would have been to potentially let two or three cars go by. So, can’t just drive around the outside of the track and let everyone use up all the space. I think you’re racing when you don’t feel you turn too aggressive.”
Speaking to Sky Sports TV, he explained further: “Lando and I were a long way away from the apex and it’s impossible to see everything at that point. So, if I’d have known it was three-wide behind me maybe I would have done something a little bit different but yeah, you have to trust your gut and instinct and that’s what I did.”
Hulkenberg, meanwhile, said: “I saw now a replay of Oscar, he turned in pretty aggressively wanting to get the undercut on the run to the exit of Turn 1 but I was kind of there … and can’t just disappear.”
The Piastri and Norris collision allowed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to bank eight points — cutting his gap to Piastri to 55 points.
Norris did not want to wade too much towards a blame game over the incident, saying it was up to the team to review in the same way they did after Singapore.
“Like all things that we do as a team, it will be reviewed,” Norris said after the sprint race. “I think it takes more time to understand everything, and certainly just before qualifying and probably before the race tomorrow is not the best time. I think things will be reviewed to just understand a few more things.
“Apart from that, there’s nothing I can do. I just have to crack on and do my own thing. I was pretty unlucky not to have the chance to race earlier. That’s not just hurting today, but also for the race tomorrow in terms of preparations. It was difficult at the time, but I said what I said and I won’t add any more.”
Verstappen will start Sunday’s grand prix from pole, ahead of Norris, with Piastri sixth.
After a stellar first half of the year, Piastri’s form has wobbled since he won the Dutch Grand Prix — a race which saw Norris retire late on with car trouble.
When it was put to him that Norris has looked stronger in Austin so far and had looked stronger in Singapore two weeks ago, Piastri countered: “I’m not sure I share the same opinion about Singapore. I feel like it was a good weekend, apart from, obviously the race results.
“I think here, yes, it’s been a struggle for me. I don’t feel like there’s been anything like I’ve made any major mistakes, or from a driving side of things, it’s just not clicking. It’s not been so much of overdriving, it’s just been that I haven’t felt comfortable with the car, really.
“So, I think that’s been the story of this weekend, but I don’t think it’s been the story in the last one.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella confirmed the incident would be reviewed by the team after the race weekend, and said the only conversations after the sprint and before qualifying were about getting the most from the rest of the weekend.
“Obviously, we have had a couple of conversations with Lando and Oscar, but the conversations were fundamentally about resetting, like in racing you can’t look backwards too much, especially when you have a qualifying session ahead,” he said. “So it was a conversation about resetting, as usual we will review at the right time the incident, we will do that collaboratively, the team, the drivers, and we will make the right assessment.
“So this follows the way we approach the situation based on our racing framework, and both Lando and Oscar were happy with this kind of approach.”
However, Stella reiterated comments he made following the sprint that appeared to blame Hulkenberg.
“What I said straight after the sprint was that I think a bit more prudence, a bit more prudence from drivers that come with a lot of experience, especially when they are in a good position, would have been helpful. And I can confirm that this is still my opinion.”
Additional reporting by Laurence Edmondson.
