Piastri and Norris: Clash in Austin, Race incident? F1 Analysis

Piastri and Norris: A Collision on the Track, Race Incident?

Austin, Texas – McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has labeled the incident with his teammate and title rival, Lando Norris, in the Austin sprint race as a simple “racing incident”. The crash occurred at the first corner of the Circuit of the Americas, where Piastri and Norris were vying for second place. Piastri, who leads Norris by 22 points in the fight for the championship, was involved in contact with Nico Hülkenberg of Sauber while trying to overtake Norris. This incident caused Piastri to collide with his teammate. This is the second clash between the McLaren drivers in two weeks, after the incident in Singapore, for which Norris was singled out by the team and received internal “repercussions”, of a sporting and non-financial nature.

“I think, for me, it’s a racing incident,” Piastri commented to reporters after qualifying. “I was far from the apex. The cars behind were getting quite into the corner.”

Oscar Piastri

Piastri explained that, although he could have acted differently, that would have meant giving up positions. Norris, for his part, said that the team would review the incident, as they did in Singapore. Hülkenberg, also involved in the incident, commented: “I saw a replay of Oscar, he aggressively went for the ‘undercut’ on the exit of turn 1, but I was there… and I can’t just disappear.”

The clash between Piastri and Norris benefited Max Verstappen, of Red Bull, who added eight points, reducing the difference with Piastri to 55 points. Norris preferred not to blame anyone directly, leaving the review to the team. Verstappen will start from pole position in Sunday’s Grand Prix, followed by Norris, with Piastri in sixth place. After a standout start to the season, Piastri’s performance has declined since his victory at the Dutch Grand Prix.

When questioned about Norris’s best performance in Austin and Singapore, Piastri responded: “I’m not sure I share the same opinion about Singapore. I feel it was a good weekend, apart from the race results.”

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella confirmed that the incident would be reviewed by the team after the race weekend and that pre-qualifying conversations focused on optimizing the rest of the weekend. Stella reiterated her comments on the need for more caution on the part of experienced pilots, especially when they are in a good position.