McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella was “pleased” to see Lando Norris offer a helping hand to team-mate Oscar Piastri during the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris had caught the ire of Stella after an ambitious dive on the very last lap of the Sprint race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit saw both him and Piastri pirouette out of the points.
The Italian had deemed the race-ending contact between his drivers as “unacceptable” at the time.
That said, seeing the reigning F1 World Champion offer to help Piastri out during the main race on Sunday left the former Ferrari man “pleased” with Norris’ attitude.
“While the conversations from this point of view are not concluded, there’s more we can do to become a more united and even stronger team,” he said.
“I’m pleased that Lando, at some stage in the race, adopted this way of thinking.
“This is what I expect as a team principal. This is what the 1,000 people that work at McLaren expect from our drivers.
“So, it’s good that we have had this example and I expect definitely more of that in the future, independently of the fact that they will be heard on the radio or they will happen behind the closed door in every meeting or in the way we approach our race plan.”
Lando Norris explains ‘change of heart’ amid fraught Singapore GP battle with Piastri
After his Sprint race incident with the Australian, Norris was adamant that he had the right of way in that corner.
But in hindsight, he did apologise to the team for making a move that probably was never going to stick.
Reflecting on his radio message to see if he could back Lewis Hamilton up to allow Piastri to line up a move for fifth, Norris explained that he empathised with the “unfortunate” turn of events that almost ruined another solid points finish for the Woking-based team.
“Yeah I mean Oscar was unfortunate with a puncture and I saw there was quite a few cars,” Norris told media including Motorsport Week after the race.
“I also had a few problems with the car myself so there was more of an opportunity to get more points and get Oscar back up the order than there was for me to catch Kimi [Antonelli] because I couldn’t.
“And I saw there was like three four cars in between so I asked but I didn’t need to [because] in the end we still got the best points we could as a team.”
Piastri eventually caught up with the waning SF-26 of Hamilton and passed him to secure a P4-P5 finish for McLaren at the chequered flag.
READ MORE – Lando Norris hands McLaren ‘long way off’ verdict after ‘impossible’ Singapore problems
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