The F1 US GP Sprint Race met an early end for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after both McLaren drivers were involved in a Turn 1 incident. This frustrating moment marked an unfortunate setback for the Papaya drivers in their battle for the world championship title.
After their Sprint Qualifying session on Friday, Norris lost out on pole in favour of Max Verstappen. However, the McLaren teammates rounded out the top three, with the Briton outqualifying Piastri at only a 0.309s difference.
Going into the Sprint Race with alleged “repercussions” for Norris after the events with Piastri at the Singapore GP, this outcome was not how McLaren hoped their F1 US GP weekend would go. Furthermore, the Drivers’ Championship fight got more intense. This double DNF allowed Verstappen to add shave off another 8 points from McLaren’s lead.
The incident from the #4 cockpit
Probably the most unlucky in the three-car collision was Lando Norris, whose race got cut short by his own teammate. This F1 US GP Sprint Race incident marks the second time in two consecutive races when the two McLaren drivers have made contact.
As the drivers made their way into Turn 1 at the start of the race, Fernando Alonso squeezed to the left of Nico Hulkenberg. The German was trying to overtake Piastri before that, which caused a three-car sandwich going into the apex. This involuntarily forced contact between Hulkenberg and the Australian. From his position, Oscar Piastri had relatively nowhere to go, knocking into Norris.
When Lando Norris was questioned in the media pen, he had no information about his Sprint collision with Piastri:
“No idea. I spun, I got hit,” the Briton told Sky Sports F1. “I need to look at it a bit more. I just got taken out, not a lot I could have done.”
After things had settled down a bit, Norris reviewed the incident again. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old highlighted his lack of fault in the frustrating collision. He went on to put the blame on the “people further back”, whose recklessness cost him valuable points:
“I don’t know what I’m meant to do in that. I just got hit, right? I did nothing wrong. Further back, things happened. And then I just got unlucky, and I got hit because of it. It’s more people further back just being a bit careless, and we are the consequence of that.”
Piastri’s recollection of the incident
The world championship leader claimed his second DNF of the season. Yet, luck has not been on his side since Singapore, when he and Norris had contact. The McLaren driver went over the F1 US GP Sprint collision from his point of view:
“I’ve not seen the incident from the TV cameras. But, obviously, I had a pretty good start. And we both went pretty deep into Turn 1,” emphasised Piastri. Despite that promising start, the Sauber of Hulkenberg just collided with him. “I tried to cut back and got hit. Obviously not a great way to start the day, but I need to have another look.”
Pretty disheartened from the incident, the 24-year-old felt powerless as he tried his best to avoid crashing into his teammate:
“I tried to cut back on Lando – I mean, we’re both very far from the apex – and then got hit,” he explained. “And obviously it sent me into Lando. So it’s a shame.”
Zak Brown’s criticism
While the two McLaren drivers refrained from throwing blame, the team’s CEO had a few thoughts about the F1 US GP Sprint Race collision. Obviously, this double DNF is less than ideal for the team. Especially since their drivers are in an active battle for the championship.
As Max Verstappen managed to keep hold of the race lead and reduce the gap to McLaren by 8 points, Zak Brown shamed the “amateur” racing that caused the incident:
“That was terrible. Neither of our drivers to blame there. Some amateur hour driving. Some drivers up there at the front whacked our two guys.”
From his perspective, it seemed pretty clear that Brown faulted Hulkenberg for the DNF of both Piastri and Norris:
“I want to see the replay again. But, clearly, Nico drove into Oscar. And he had no business being where he was.”
All is well that ends well for McLaren. Zak Brown reassured Sky Sports F1 that both Papaya drivers will take part in Qualifying later on Saturday: “The damage is relatively easy to fix.”
Andrea Stella’s post-incident statements
McLaren’s Team Principal, Andrea Stella, shared Brown’s frustrations after the F1 US GP Sprint collision that took out Piastri and Norris. When asked about his reaction to the incident, Stella made a subtle jab about an “experienced driver” and his carelessness:
“Well, the reaction is that we are disappointed that we didn’t have the possibility to race today. The first-corner incident took both cars out of the race. It’s surprising that, you know, like some drivers with a lot of experience don’t act with just more prudence.
“Just more prudence. Go through the first corner, make sure you don’t damage competitors and then carry on. So, overall, disappointed, but we take it on the chin. We are now focusing on repairing the cars. And there’s a lot to do. Then we restart the weekend from there.”
His dismay was noticeable, choosing to refer to the Grand Prix Qualifying as a “restart”.
Keeping their heads high for Sunday
With nothing left to do except dwell on the crash, Andrea Stella decided to shift his focus onto the remainder of the GP events. Underlining the MCL39’s competitiveness, the TP spoke of McLaren’s need to maximise point gain after the F1 US GP Sprint incident.
“I think we are in a strong position from a competitiveness point of view. So we hope we have the possibility to race. Race normally and capitalise on our performance.
“Yeah, the points are the most important thing,” added the Papaya Team Principal.
Additionally, Stella made sure to clarify his previous statements. He believes there is a real need for more prudence between racing drivers. The Italian explained he was not throwing around accusations of intentional harm.
“Also, you know, I don’t talk about malintent, I just talk about prudence. Prudence, especially when you are in such a position, which was very good for some of these experienced drivers.
“I think a little bit more prudence would have been good for everyone.”
Instead, the McLaren TP decided to focus on “normal racing” for the rest of the weekend:
“I think, you know, like the implication is what the mathematics says. We have lost eight points with both drivers, but we focus on ourselves. We know that if we can race and race normally, we have a very competitive car, two very strong drivers. And I think the score is going to take care of themselves. So we just look forward to just some normal racing.”
