Lando Norris has reflected on his Canadian Grand Prix clash with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, citing that even Formula 1‘s most decorated drivers aren’t immune to errors.
The pair collided late on at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve while battling over fourth, with the contact inflicting terminal damage on Norris’ car and forcing him into retirement.
Having recovered from a poor qualifying, the Briton had been attempting a move on Piastri down the main straight but misjudged the situation and slammed into the wall.
The incident not only capped off a frustrating weekend for the Woking-based squad but also reignited debate over how much freedom McLaren should grant its drivers to race each other, especially amid the team’s current run of front-running form.
Despite the setback, the team quickly moved on and embraced another wheel-to-wheel duel in Austria, where Norris emerged unscathed, even after a bold late lunge from Piastri at Turn 4 that nearly ended in disaster.
Norris continued to impress with a victory on home soil at Silverstone, but the Canada clash remained a point of interest as questions resurfaced about the boundaries of McLaren’s intra-team freedom.
When asked in Austria how far he and Piastri are allowed to race – and where the red line is drawn – Norris offered a frank reflection on the earlier incident.
“I would say Canada was a fairly red line,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“It’s also not simple because when you’re racing so much on the limits and you’re trying to push the limits of everything, it’s so easy to make mistakes.
“As much as you can say we’re the best drivers in the world, [it] doesn’t mean people don’t make mistakes.
“Even the very best who have won multiple World Championships still make mistakes. That’s the line that we don’t ever want to cross.”
Norris on the fine line between racing freedom and team limits
The 25-year-old was clear that while racing hard is encouraged, there remains an unspoken understanding between the team-mates about where the boundaries lie.
“That’s the line that we don’t ever want to cross, and I think we both know that very much so as drivers,” Norris continued.
“We want to race. There’ll still be times when, as a team, we get told we’ll have to hold position or do this or do that because we’re still under the guidance of the team.
“But the whole race last weekend was ‘let them race,’ and that’s what we did. It’s clear to us.
“It’s not always something that we have to voice and make clear to everyone else, but it’s quite simple.
“You can do what you guys want to do. You can have fun. You can get close.
“I’m sure it’ll make them nervous like it already did last weekend, but there’s also a lot of people that work hard to build our cars and give us the possibility to win a race in the first place.
“If we lose those opportunities because of something silly, then that’s where we easily cross the line.
“So, free to race most of the time for sure, and just don’t do what I did in Canada.”
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