McLaren CEO Zak Brown has apologised to Sauber and Nico Hulkenberg for the comment he made about the Sprint Race at Formula 1‘s United States Grand Prix.
Both McLaren cars were eliminated in a first-corner collision in the Sprint Race that also involved Hulkenberg and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
Speaking moments after the incident on the McLaren pit wall, Brown criticised the driving at the front of the pack, calling it “amateur hour driving.”
He told Sky Sports F1: “I want to see the replay again, but clearly Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was, went into his left rear tyre.”
However, that early view turned out to be premature.
Many observers concluded that the chain reaction began when Oscar Piastri moved across the apex in an attempt to make a switch back on team-mate Lando Norris.
Brown revises his view
But having reviewed the footage later, Brown conceded he had misjudged the situation. “I think I’ve changed my view. I can’t really put that on Nico,” he commented.
Realising his initial comments had made headlines, Brown took steps to apologise.
He sent a text to Sauber boss Jonathan Wheatley and offered a personal apology to Hulkenberg, ensuring that the matter was settled without lingering tension.
“Zak sent me an apology really quickly afterwards, and he apologised personally to Nico,” Wheatley told media including Motorsport Week in Austin.
“Look, this is a passionate sport. I love the passion. You’ve got two cars, you’re fighting for a world championship, and your two cars get taken out of the first corner.
“It’s easy to think that it’s somebody else’s fault sometimes, and you react with passion.
“But I’ve known Zak a really long time. He’s a racer. We’re all racers, and we sorted it out afterwards.”
The stewards opted against dishing out a punishment to the drivers involved, labelling the Turn 1 pile-up a racing incident – a view shared by Piastri himself.
“I was a long way away from the apex and I think the cars behind were going in pretty deep to the corner, so could I have done something a bit different? Maybe yes,” he said.
“But that different thing would have been to potentially let two or three cars go by.
“I can’t just drive around the outside of the track and let everyone use up all the space. I think a racing incident is fair.”
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