Lando Norris will face “consequences” after McLaren held him responsible for the first-lap collision with Oscar Piastri in Singapore.
The title protagonists banged wheels at turn two as Norris barged ahead of Piastri into third, with the Australian complaining bitterly on the team radio.
During the race, McLaren opted not to intervene and the FIA found no fault with Norris’ move but, two weeks on, the team have decided the British driver was to blame and that action will be taken.
Both drivers and the team refused to specify what that action would be but it is understood there will be sporting consequences as the title battle takes another remarkable turn.
“Lando has taken responsibility for that,” Piastri said. “I think it’s quite clear for us as a team that how lap one unfolded wasn’t how we want to go racing.
“I don’t think you can really say what would have been fair to do in the race, but ultimately the responsibility has been put on Lando afterwards.
“I would say I’m not expecting it to be redressed on track any time or every time, but ultimately we know how we’re expected to go racing and if we don’t, there’s consequences for that.”
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Norris accepted the team’s decision to blame him for the incident. He also suggested that the unspecified consequences dealt out to him would be noticeable.
“The team held me accountable for what happened, which I think is fair,” Norris said. “Then we made progress from there on and understanding what the repercussions were for myself.
“There was contact between two McLaren cars. Zak [Brown, CEO] and Andrea [Stella, team principal] don’t want that to happen. And I think as teammates, we don’t want that to happen.
“Of course, that’s the reason for why I was held accountable. There are consequences.”
He added to Sky Sports: “There are and will be repercussions for me until the end of the season.”
Piastri was asked to move aside for Norris in Monza in September after his teammate allowed him to pit first before suffering a slow stop. McLaren also stepped in last season, with Norris asked to let Piastri through to win the Hungarian Grand Prix following the pit stops.
This would appear to be the latest intervention by McLaren into the title scrap as they strive to keep things even among their drivers.
Piastri leads Norris by 22 points with six rounds remaining ahead of this weekend’s US Grand Prix but the Australian has finished behind his rival in each of the last three races.
Norris denied suggestions that McLaren are overcomplicating the battle between their drivers and is convinced the approach is best for the team.
“I think if I was on the outside, I would probably have a similar opinion and outlook on these kind of things,” Norris said. “But internally, it’s pretty simple.
“I think sometimes the repercussions are not positive. But at the same time, it’s clear that the interest for Andrea is preserving the positive teamwork that we have.
“The teamwork that’s allowed us to go from being last on the grid a few years ago to being the best performing team and also just having two drivers that challenge each other more than any other team on the grid.”
