Stella praises Norris for owning Singapore sprint clash after Piastri collision

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has praised Lando Norris for accepting responsibility over his collision with team-mate Oscar Piastri in the Singapore Grand Prix sprint race at Marina Bay, describing the driver’s eventual response as exactly what he expects from a McLaren driver.

Norris made an opportunistic lunge down the inside of Turn 5 on the final lap of Saturday’s sprint while the pair were fighting over fourth place. The contact forced Piastri into retirement and dropped Norris to eighth. Stewards chose not to penalise either driver, ruling that both had contributed to the incident, but McLaren’s hierarchy was furious.

Norris’s public position shifted markedly over the course of the weekend. On Saturday he insisted there had been ‘a big gap’ and that he had the ‘right’ to attack. By Sunday, after finishing fourth in the main race, he admitted he ‘should never have attempted’ the move. Piastri said the clash ‘didn’t need to happen’ but added that he had already moved on.

In the grand prix itself, Norris also helped Piastri execute a late overtake on Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton for fifth — a gesture Stella highlighted as the kind of team-first thinking he demands.

‘What we had yesterday I classified it as unacceptable, which is a statement that comes from the team principal,’ Stella said. ‘But I was very encouraged by the fact that it’s a statement that very rapidly came from our drivers as well.’

Stella acknowledged that internal discussions are ongoing but stressed the focus is not on relitigating the incident itself. ‘The interesting bit is a reflection that all the stakeholders in this team are aligned as to how we want to lead this team forward in a joint effort between the team and the drivers,’ he said.

The episode comes at a delicate moment in McLaren’s season. The Woking outfit has gone three consecutive rounds without a podium, and Red Bull — buoyed by back-to-back victories for Max Verstappen — now trails McLaren by just seven points in the constructors’ standings. With the championship battle tightening, Stella will be hoping Sunday’s show of unity signals a turning point rather than a one-off.