Stella calls McLaren team-mate collision in Singapore sprint 'simply not acceptable'

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella delivered a sharp rebuke after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri collided on the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix sprint on Saturday, calling the contact between his two drivers “simply not acceptable.”

With three laps of the wet 20-lap sprint remaining, Norris lunged down the inside of Piastri at Turn 5, failed to complete the move as the gap closed, and clipped his team-mate’s right-rear corner. Both cars spun; Piastri was eliminated on the spot with severe rear damage to his MCL40, while Norris recovered to finish eighth. The stewards summoned both drivers but opted against further action, concluding that “neither driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision.”

For McLaren, the shared blame offered little comfort. The team faced a significant repair bill, was forced to replace Piastri’s gearbox, and surrendered valuable constructors’ championship points in an avoidable exchange between its own cars.

“Seeing two McLarens making contact like that is simply not acceptable,” Stella said. “This is something we will discuss with our drivers, we will do it in private, we will reiterate that team interest is far bigger than any of us. There’s no ego, there’s no person that is bigger than the interest of the McLaren Formula 1 team.”

The incident is the latest in a series of on-track clashes between the two drivers in 2025, which had already prompted McLaren to tighten its internal rules of engagement — the so-called Papaya Rules — earlier in the season.

Piastri confirmed that Norris had apologised to him and to the team, and struck a measured tone when speaking to media. “The biggest thing obviously is we just can’t have that happen in terms of the points and also the workload and money,” he said. “It just wasn’t a situation that needed to happen, really. So, Lando apologised and we moved on.”

Piastri added that the pair’s ability to address incidents quickly remained a team strength. “Unfortunately, it’s not our first coming together, but I think we’re both very good at saying sorry when we need to and moving on, and I think that’s what makes us strong as a team.”

Norris echoed the stewards’ view that responsibility was shared. “No one’s very happy. I’m not happy. Oscar wasn’t happy,” he said. “None of us wanted to go that way. There were things both of us could have done better. And yeah, we spoke about it and we moved on.”