McLaren opts not to punish Norris for Piastri Singapore collision

Last year, when coincidentally Norris hit Piastri in Singapore, McLaren imposed a light sporting sanction on Norris at the next race – which, again, was the US GP at Austin.

Piastri was allowed to pick which order he left the garage, a perk that was meant to stand for the remainder of the season, but was revoked that very weekend when Piastri hit Norris in the Austin sprint.

This time around, McLaren has decided the situation merited a different approach, which Piastri has also accepted.

“I’ve been been happy with how things have been dealt with,” said Piastri in the US GP pre-event press conference.

“I think the team and Zak and Andrea have handled things the way they should have been. So that’s been fine.”

Its discussions have been less about establishing whether Norris was responsible for the contact – which was the crux of the matter 12 months ago – and more wanting him to understand the move itself was unnecessary.

Norris was initially of the view that the move was on, and he was justified in going for it, but he had already climbed down from that stance by Sunday in Singapore.

McLaren took issue with the pass because even if Norris had pulled it off, it would not have changed McLaren’s result as he would almost certainly not have been able to then overtake Charles Leclerc – who had run ahead of Piastri all race.

And he is not in a position in the championship where an extra point for himself was worth justifying a risk like that against his team-mate.

So, while Stella implied there could be consequences coming when he said he was not interested in the drivers saying sorry, the priority was being satisfied Norris actually understood his misjudgement rather than getting an apology for the sake of it.