Norris denies “aggressive” move on Piastri in F1 Singapore GP start

The optics of ‘blue on blue’ – or in this case papaya on papaya – incidents in Formula 1 seldom reflect well on the aggressor. Especially at McLaren, where a policy of scrupulous equality prevails.

But Lando Norris outright rejected claims that his move on team-mate Oscar Piastri at Turn 3 on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix was “aggressive” – even though they bumped wheels and Piastri openly (and repeatedly) chafed about the move.

“So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?” Piastri asked.

In the post-race press conference Norris initially claimed not to remember the events of the opening lap, but then the memories came flooding back.

“I think the start was good – the right-hand side of the grid was good,” he said.

“I think it was a good launch as well. So I got across and put myself in a good position to not get checked up out of Turn 1 and into Turn 2. And I just had a big gap on the inside of Oscar.

“And it was just very close. It was still slippery because it was still damp in places and drying out. And I think I just clipped the back of Max’s car and that’s just given me a little correction.

“But then that was it. So yeah, good in terms of I got two positions. And if I didn’t get them there, I probably would never have got them.

“Just because like we saw, it was too difficult to overtake. So the aggression there and the forward-thinking was paid off.”

“Aggressive on the team-mate?” clarified press conference compere Tom Clarkson.

“Well, I hit Max,” replied Norris, “so it wasn’t aggressive on my team-mate.”

Norris’s contention is that his contact with Verstappen through the opening sequence of corners caused the “slight correction” which carried him into his own team-mate. In the context of a race in which overtaking was expected to be difficult, a slippery track owing to recent rain, and Verstappen getting a sub-optimal launch off the unfavourable left-hand side of the grid, it’s understandable that many drivers arrived at Turn 1 with a feeling that it was now or never.

Norris extracted some benefit from his poor Saturday because fifth place put him on the right-hand side of the grid and he hooked up well from the start, immediately passing fourth-placed Andrea Kimi Antonelli who, like Verstappen, got a lot of wheelspin as the lights went out. Into Turn 1, Norris was assertive, to say the least, on his team-mate, riding the inside kerb to get alongside.

That cost him momentum and Piastri was over half a car length ahead at the exit – but altering his trajectory slightly to avoid contact with Norris cost him traction in the drive towards Turn 2. By the apex of that right-hander they were side-by-side, which would give Norris the inside line into Turn 3.

So intent was Norris on not giving way to his team-mate that he clipped the back of Verstappen’s car with his front wing – the left-hand endplate remained askew for the whole race – and almost instantly banged his right-hand wheels with Piastri.

You could argue that he had nowhere else to go – but, equally, he had played a role in authoring that situation. In any case the stewards, inclined towards leniency in assessing opening-lap incidents, decided this was one of those situations where no driver was “wholly or predominantly to blame”.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

But the optics within McLaren are different, of course. Nobody outside the team has seen any documentation regarding the so-called “papaya rules” which outline the terms of engagement, but it’s a reasonable bet that a proviso about not hitting your team-mate comes somewhere near the top. Hence Piastri’s angst – and of course, given his position within the cockpit, with a restricted field of vision he was bound to interpret that moment in a particular way.

It may be that he changes his mind upon reviewing the incident from all the angles.

Ayrton Senna once said, “If you no longer go for a gap, you are no longer a racing driver,” a quote which is now routinely deployed by blowhards in online conversation as a mic drop to justify the unjustifiable. Norris came dangerously close to echoing the same sentiments.

“I might look at it and think there’s something else I could have done or could have done better,” he said. “Anyone on the grid would have done exactly the same thing as I did. So I think if you fault me for just going up the inside and putting my car on the inside of a big gap, then you shouldn’t be in Formula 1.

“I don’t think there was anything wrong that I did. Of course, I misjudged a little bit how close I am to Max, but that’s racing. Nothing happened otherwise. And I’m sure I still would have just ended up ahead of Oscar anyway, because I was on the inside and he would have had the dirty side of the track on the outside.”

It was certainly a clumsy move, borne of desperation, if not actually a premeditated act of aggression. And it has made team boss Andrea Stella’s job of keeping the peace yet more challenging.

On the cool-down lap Piastri, one of the coolest customers in F1, unplugged his radio just as Zak Brown was trying to pat him on the back over the airwaves. McLaren may not yet be approaching Defcon 1, but it can’t be far off.

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– The Autosport.com Team