Steiner brands Norris's Piastri clash in Singapore sprint 'not a world champion move'

Guenther Steiner has delivered a sharp rebuke of Lando Norris after the 2025 Formula 1 world champion collided with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri on the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race, calling the incident “not a world champion move”.

Running fourth and fifth, Norris attempted a move down the inside of Piastri but clipped his team-mate, sending both cars into a spin. Piastri was eliminated from the race on the spot, while Norris recovered to finish eighth and salvage a single point.

“You really shouldn’t be doing this. This was not a world champion move,” Steiner said on The Red Flags Podcast. The former Haas team principal also praised McLaren boss Andrea Stella’s handling of the aftermath. “Andrea in these situations is very good. I think he made him feel a w***er. He explained to him that this is not happening. I don’t think Norris [apologised] for a political reason. [Norris] came to the conclusion that [it] was actually pretty stupid what he did… There was no need for it, especially the reaction afterwards.”

Steiner pointed to Norris’s initial response as compounding the error. “Because when you crash into your team-mate… it can happen. But the reaction from him, because that is not Lando. He realised he was a little bit too cocky.”

Norris had initially defended the attempt, saying “it was a big gap, I went for it, I have the right to do that,” but later issued a full apology. “I can’t attempt what I did, I should never have attempted it in the first place, even if the move was on,” Norris told F1.com. “I simply have to think more about the team that I represent more than myself. It was a mistake on my part, I let down the team. I’ve also apologised to all of them and I owe them all an apology and we’ll do better next time.”

Despite the sprint setback, both McLaren drivers recovered strongly in the main race, with Norris finishing fourth and Piastri fifth to collect 22 points between them.