McLaren urged to consider Piastri as lead driver following Norris' latest blunder

According to the former team principal, the decision about the team's number one driver has to be made soon for multiple reasons.

"I think they will do that, maybe not publicly. What it is, as we could see the McLaren was not the dominant car here anymore. So you need to start to be careful," Steiner began in The Red Flags Podcast, saying that last year, rivals caught up to the dominant team Red Bull Racing in the constructors' standings.

The two McLaren drivers' made contact on Lap 67 on the start-finish straight, that led to the Briton finishing the race in the wall. After the race, he apologised to his team as well.

"They were lucky that he didn’t take Oscar out. Because in a normal circumstances, he’s got a flat tyre. I don’t know how this didn’t happen,” Steiner continued, explaining that damage to the car also prevents the team investing in their 2026 challengers.

As a result of the incident and Norris' DNF, Piastri now leads by 22 points in the standings after 10 round have been completed this season.

"I wouldn’t be this direct at this moment, but I will go in the direction of saying ‘hey Lando, if you’re not cleaning your act up in the next three races, or if you are not in the lead or something happens to Oscar, after the summer break when we come back, you will be number two'," Steiner recommends to McLaren to make this decision, because the last thing the Woking-based team would need are more crashes.

"I think Lando doesn’t need to be told that, I think he understands that now after this mistake, because he admitted the mistake. Oscar has got the upper hand at the moment, he can do whatever he wants," he added.

The former Haas team principal that the Briton is too error prone. "There something, there’s always a little mistake with Lando. I respect his driving, he’s fast, and you could see he’s got good race pace, but then he gets to it, there’s a mistake.”

Steiner also underlined that once again, Norris failed to wait until his moment came, as he had better race pace than Piastri until they crashed at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“How many mistakes did he do in 10 races? So in 14, he will make more. Mathematics," he concluded jokingly.