Lando Norris has accepted complete blame for the “foolish” race-ending touch with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri that ended his Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.
Norris had capitalised on Piastri, who had lost out to Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the start, losing time behind backmarkers to close on his team-mate with 11 laps to go.
Having been unable to make a move using DRS, though, Norris tried a late lunge down Piastri’s inside at the Turn 10 hairpin that precedes the back straight on Lap 66.
However, Piastri cut back underneath Norris and the two McLaren cars approached the last chicane neck and neck, with the Australian braking later to retain the spot.
A smooth exit enabled Norris to come back at Piastri on the main straight, but his attempt to pass on the inside saw him tag his team-mate and rebound into the wall.
Norris has elucidated that he chose to pursue the side where the gap was closing as he recognised that it would be impossible to overtake Piastri around the outside.
“I don’t expect to pass Oscar on the outside into Turn 1,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week.
“I should never have gone for it, I guess is my complete hindsight thing.
“I thought he was starting to drift a little bit to the right so I thought I had a small opportunity to go to the left. But it was way too much risk, especially on my team-mate.
“So, happy nothing happened to him and I paid the price for my mistake.”
The damage to the suspension on Norris’ McLaren prompted him to retire, but Piastri was clear to continue and the subsequent Safety Car cemented his fourth place.
Prior to vacating the stranded MCL39, Norris shouldered blame over the team radio, while he was then spotted apologising to Piastri once both were in the media pen.
When told others wouldn’t be as quick to take responsibility, he said: “I do because our rule number one is to not make contact with your team-mate and it’s what I did.
“McLaren is my family, I race for them every single weekend. I try and do well for them, more than I often try and do well for myself.
“So when I let them down like this and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, I have a lot of regret and something like that.
“I’m not proud of that and I feel bad and I feel like I let down my team and that’s for me always the worst feeling. Of course, I really need to apologise to all of them and Oscar as well.”
Norris admits clash will remain with him ‘a little while’
Norris expressed the incident will remain with him “a while”, as he admitted that it won’t be a “nice moment” when he returns to McLaren’s base in Woking in the week.
“Well, I mean, of course, I’ve let down the team, so that’s going to stay with me for a little while,” he added.
“But at the same time, part of moving on is trying to put it behind you and crack on with the next weekend.
“But we go back to the factory and I go and say hello to the whole team and I’m sure that’s not going to be a nice moment for me because of something like today.
“But I think the best part of it is nothing happened to Oscar and, yes, shame I have to say that, but that’s the best part of all of it.”
Norris relieved Piastri relationship unharmed
Norris, who denied Piastri had been too aggressive, appreciated that his team-mate had claimed that his immediate admission had been a testament to his character.
“I’m happy he said that,” Norris replied. “Of course, he’s not going to be happy altogether with what happened. I wouldn’t be either if it was the other way around.
“So, again, I owe him an apology for taking such a risk.
“He raced me fairly until that point and close and that’s what you want. So, no one did nothing wrong here, just myself.”
The result has seen Piastri’s advantage in the Drivers’ Championship grow to 22 points, although Norris is adamant that he isn’t worried with 14 rounds still remaining.
“There’s plenty more races left,” he highlighted.
“I don’t expect it to be easy, I don’t expect to catch him easy, but I have to work hard for it and make less mistakes than I did this weekend.”
READ MORE – George Russell wins F1 Canadian GP as McLaren drivers clash
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