Zak Brown: “Marginal” consequences for Lando Norris after the incident with Piastri
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has stated that the repercussions that Lando Norris will face for his crash with teammate Oscar Piastri at the Singapore Grand Prix are minor and will likely go unnoticed by fans.
Norris confirmed that he will face “consequences” for the first-lap contact with Piastri in Singapore, but McLaren has not revealed the details of them.
It’s marginal. It’s consistent with what happened, which was a racing incident, at the end of the day, at the start of a Grand Prix with a track that was somewhat damp.
Brown explained that the penalty is in line with the magnitude of Norris’s error, which allowed him to gain a position over Piastri after the contact, but without causing damage to his teammate’s car.
Piastri currently leads Norris by 22 points in the drivers’ standings, with six races remaining. However, his lead has been reduced by 12 points after Norris finished ahead of him in the last three races.
Since the start of the season, McLaren has made it clear that its drivers are free to compete with each other on the track, as long as they avoid contact.
Brown added that both drivers have always been aware of the possible consequences in the event of a collision, and that the situation is not as complicated as it has been portrayed.
Brown was asked why McLaren would not give more details about the consequences for Norris, to which he replied that there are certain aspects of racing that all teams protect so as not to reveal a competitive advantage.
Brown commented that the team tries to be as transparent as possible, but that there are reasons why engineering reports are only shared internally. “At the end of the day, we are at a sporting event. We can’t necessarily tell everything to everyone. Our setup sheets are not public either,” he concluded.
