Norris and Piastri laugh off Singapore crash: 'Wanted to spice things up'
Photo: Race Pictures
Kada Sárközi joined GPblog as an editor ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 season. He graduated with a BA in Sports Journalism in the UK and has covered Grands Prix and other F1 events live.
At the United States Grand Prix, McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri could have a laugh about their incident at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Last weekend, the two McLaren cars collided. On the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix Sprint, Norris went for an ambitious move on his teammate in Turn 5. The two papaya cars made contact, Piastri was out of the race, while Norris fell back to eighth place.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown was also not happy with what happened, and said on Sky Sports: "Yes, that was a ‘don’t do that again.’ And we didn’t say please. That’s an order. You can’t have that [crash]. It was an unnecessary result for the team when a lot of pressure is on, and we’re trying to catch Ferrari and Red Bull’s not far behind."
Norris and Piastri laugh about the Singapore incident
During the driver fan forum, the two McLaren drivers were asked about the best moments of their season so far. Norris began, "there haven't been many this year..."
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Piastri then interrupted, "Singapore was good," as the entire crowd began laughing.
Norris then added: "Singapore... we just wanted to spice it up a little bit. Singapore was yeah, also great. What else?"
Norris warns of difficulties despite shining in clear category at COTA
Both McLaren drivers' best lap in FP2 was more than a second slower than Charles Leclerc's best attempt on Friday.
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"But when it comes together... It's just difficult. Just impossible to put a lot together at the minute," Norris began after the session.
"Yeah, there are signs of good pace at the minute, but just, you know, to go into a qualifying now and be able to repeat that every lap and do it on demand is just... Is too difficult. So, yeah, I'm sure it's the same for everyone honestly. So I think we just need to make some small tweaks to the car. It's not like there's anything crazy. It's just, it's tough and at the minute, the car handling is just a little bit on the difficult to achieve side."
Still, McLaren does have a secret weapon, which is their long-run pace. Norris was the best in that regard a day ago. The McLaren driver continued: "So maybe a small things in a few directions can help us out, but the pace is there or thereabouts like you said. So we can still be still be optimistic."
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