McLaren CEO Zak Brown has downplayed the significance of the repercussions Lando Norris will face after his clash with Oscar Piastri in Formula 1‘s Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris and Piastri’s wheel-banging tete-a-tete at the Marina Bay Circuit overshadowed McLaren’s retention of the Constructors’ Championship, causing a contentious situation.
Both men at the time felt that they had done no wrong, but ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, it transpired that Norris had been handed the blame for his role in it.
Norris admitted he faced “repercussions” for pushing Piastri wide at Turn 3 on the opening lap, with Piastri claiming that both Norris and the team have “taken responsibility” for it.
Brown, speaking to Sky Sports F1, intimated he understood the reasons for the incident but laid down the law with a dose of tough love.
“We review, of course, every race,” he said. “Lando and Oscar had a little bit of a touch there.
“The start of the Formula 1 race is pretty manic, it was clearly not intentional. But we don’t want our cars touching so we laid out how we go racing at the start of the year.
“So [there will be] a little of a sporting repercussion in lieu of what happened.
“So we move forward, the drivers are comfortable and they’re free to race and looking forward to a big race weekend.”
Brown added that the repercussion will be “marginal”, and “probably won’t be noticed”.
Later, Brown was asked what the exact consequences Norris would be facing, but the American refused to be drawn on going into any detail.
“No, we don’t want to get into that,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “I think, you know, that’s private business between us.
“I know everyone’s interested to know, but both drivers are in a great place.
“And we just want to set them up to continue to be able to race each other hard. It’s not easy having two number-one drivers.
“But we want to have both drivers competing for the championship. And with that comes challenges that are more challenging than if you had a one and two driver, which we’ve seen over the years.
“So we’re racers. We like to see him race, but we don’t like to see him touch each other.”
Brown confirms ‘minor consequence’ for Norris
Brown was clear that the incident broke the code of ‘papaya rules’, the highly talked-about directive that Norris and Piastri must always adhere to.
“You know, we set out at the beginning of the year how we want to race and how we want to race each other,” he said.
“And the papaya rules, which everyone likes to talk about, is pretty much one rule, which is don’t touch each other and don’t run each other off the track.
“So it’s quite simple and it’s kind of taken on a bit of a life of its own. And we just want to make sure that while they’re racing hard, they don’t come together. That puts them at risk, puts the team at risk.”
Brown revealed that the clarity of the term was made during the time between the end of 2024 and the start of 2025, and said that he understood that there were mitigating circumstances that contributed to Norris’ touch with Piastri.
“And so we agreed with them in the off-season, you know, how we would handle certain situations,” he added.
“It was a pretty minor incident, the start of a Grand Prix. It’s pretty chaotic, it was a damp track, and it clearly wasn’t intentional.
“And so we worked through with them different consequences for different situations. It was a pretty minor situation. So it’s a pretty minor consequence.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris sets early benchmark with fastest FP1 time for F1 US GP
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