McLaren tension? Norris opens up after crashing with teammate Piastri

09:10, 27 Jun

Updated: 11:18, 27 Jun

byKada Sarkozi

Two weeks ago, Lando Norris crashed into Oscar Piastri fighting for P4 at the Canadian Grand Prix, leading to the Briton finishing the race in the wall. The McLaren driver reflected on what took place, and their chance at this weekend in Austria.

Norris immediately apologised for the incident at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve over the team radio. "There's been good understanding of everything, realising my thoughts, understanding things from both my side and explaining that to the team," the British driver began to GPblog among others.

Norris also explains that at least he could learn moving forward after this incident. "Of course, not the most joyful conversations, but conversations that needed to be had clearly and obviously from us as a team, because it's not just about myself, it is how we perform as a team and we all know what rule number one was and continues and will always be."

"Some very constructive things, and in the unfortunate way, but a good way, many things have come out stronger than I would say they were prior to the weekend, which you might not expect, I think is a good outcome."

What hurt the driver the most was the fact that he crashed with his teammate, he added. "This was probably the most painful part for me."

"It was a tough couple of days but also I think something I got better at is dealing with those moments and speaking to Andrea [Stella], my team around me, Zak [Brown] and trying to move on as quickly as possible was very important. Coming to this weekend with that in the past and go again."

Norris getting out of his car after the incident in Canada

Important to have good relationship with Piastri

At Thursday's press conference, championship leader Oscar Piastri also talked about the incident, explaining that papaya rules didn't change, something that was also confirmed by Norris.

"One of the first good lessons was just me taking accountability for it, which I did in the moment, but yeah, me owning up, me taking accountability for what happened, and responsibility for what happened. I think that's a good example for us as a team. Not that I'm here to try and set the best example of how to own up for mistakes," Norris continued.

In the past, also at McLaren, there have been many battles between the two drivers. For the Briton, it is also key to be on good terms with the Australian.

"It's also between the trust and the honesty I think that Oscar and I have for one another, it's important that we keep it up, we stay strong as a team because we don't want to have the downfall that we know many other teams have had in the past. We want to race each other fair and hard and on the limit and not have a repeat of what happened last time out. That takes both of us, even though Canada was on me."