McLaren adjusts its rules with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris

The Woking team gathered its drivers after the Singapore touch and the priests even changed their minds about responsibility. For the future: battle, without friction.

McLaren arrives at the United States GP, the 19th round of the year, on its worst streak of the season: three races without wins. Although he already has the Constructors’ title in his pocket, the drivers’ title still needs to be defined and Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are the main candidates. The celebration for the team crown achieved in the Marina Bay area was marred by the controversy that broke out among his pupils due to the touch that occurred in the third corner of the first lap.

The Englishman threw himself to surpass his teammate and reached the touch. The Australian lost the position and began a very long string of radio conversations in which Piastri asked that Norris return the position to him. The sports stewards analyzed the maneuver and determined that there would be no sanction. “We agree with that,” they told the Melbourne man. His annoyance was evident in the rest of the competition and he was not even on the podium during the celebrations for winning the Constructors’ title.

With the sparkling wine still soaked in his clothes from the celebration, Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, warned in Singapore that everything would be analyzed more calmly the next day. Well, the priest and Andrea Stella, the team director, met with the drivers, saw the maneuver and understood that Norris was the culprit.. Enough late to try to change the result and return to Piastri the three points he lost with respect to Norris in the leadership of the table. It is worth remembering that in the Italian GP Piastri was forced to give up his place because Norris had problems at the pit stop…

Already on the Texan Austin track, Norris spoke about the situation that was experienced behind closed doors after Singapore touched down.: “There were conversations, it was inevitable. The team held me accountable for what happened, and I think that’s fair. Then we moved forward from there to understand what the repercussions were for me and to prevent anything worse than what happened from happening. The last thing I want is for something like this to happen to provoke this type of controversial conversations after a race,” confessed the Englishman.

“I think one thing we’ve always done well as a team is use and progress with the framework we have to allow both of us as drivers to trust each other and the team,” added Norris.

There were no explanations about these repercussions that Norris will experience, but McLaren adjusted the pegs of the papaya rules, showing you cracks and some wrists in favor of Norris. Although Piastri avoided controversy and feels on equal terms with his teammate. “We analyzed the incident and Lando was responsible. I am very happy that there was no favoritism or bias. We had many discussions, as expected. Very productive. I think we are very clear about how we want to run as a team. The incident we had in Singapore is not how we want to run. “Lando has taken responsibility for that, and so has the team,” Oscar said.

When asked about the decision not to change positions on the track and determine responsibilities a day later, Piastri said: “Assessing whether the exchange would have been the right thing to do in that scenario is very difficult. We talked about it hotly and discussed what happened with more data. Ultimately, I don’t think you can really say what would have been fair to do in the race. I would say that I don’t expect it to be rectified on the track at any or all times. But ultimately, “We know how we are expected to go in the race and if we don’t, there will be consequences for it.”