What did McLaren say about the crash between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the United States?

Andrea Stella had a particular vision of the sprint start incident that left her drivers out. How will they handle the tension?

While Max Verstappen closed his victory in the sprint of the United States GP and his threatening figure grew for the McLaren drivers in the fight for the title, The priests of the Woking team gave their version to the press about the incident of the game, in which Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were left out of the competition.

The Australian went better than the Englishman, he went on the outside, but seeing that he would not have a radius to turn at the same time in the tight first turndecided to change the trajectory to gain the rope from the inside. In that place was Nico Hülkenberg, who had started fourth. The MCL39 of the World Championship leader hooked up with the German’s Sauber and took flight (literally) to end up crashing with Norris’s McLaren. Both of them outside.

Piastri failed in his reading of the maneuver. This abrupt change in trajectory can be made when the fight is hand-to-hand, not when reaching the first corner after the start, because behind, close behind, comes the rest of the peloton. However, Andrea Stella, director of McLaren, chose to seek external appointments.

“We are disappointed not to have had the opportunity to compete today. The incident in the first corner left both cars out of the race. It is surprising that some drivers with a lot of experience do not act with due caution. You have to get to the first corner, make sure not to harm the competitors and move on. The points are the most important thing, I don’t want to talk about bad intentions, just about caution. A little more caution would be good for everyone,” he said the italian aiming at Hülkenberg. The Sauber driver suddenly found Piastri, there was nothing he could do.

“Overall, we are disappointed, but we accept it. Now we focus on repairing the cars; there is a lot to do and then we will restart the weekend from there. I think we are in a solid position in terms of competitiveness, so I hope we have the chance to compete normally and get the most out of our performance.” The short time between the sprint and qualifying for the main race put the Woking mechanics against the clock with the two MCL39s under repair.

Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, was stronger against the German from Sauber. “I want to watch the replay again, but clearly Nico Hülkenberg collided with Oscar and he had no business being where he was. It was an amateur mistake.” A while later, the American spoke again after seeing the images and changed his mind: “Lor I have reviewed. I think I changed my mind. “I can’t put the blame on Nico.”