McLaren will no longer impose a minor sporting penalty on Lando Norris for the remainder of the season after reviewing the crash caused by Oscar Piastri in the sprint race at the United States Grand Prix.
Last weekend McLaren imposed “consequences” as retribution for Norris being deemed at fault for the two drivers clashing at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix.
This was believed to relate to Piastri getting to choose to leave the garage before or after Norris for the final part of qualifying, and set to be the case for the remainder of the season so that Norris was held accountable for the minor collision that he was ultimately responsible for.
However, the two drivers then crashed out of the US sprint race together at the first corner, after Piastri collided with Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber then bounced into Norris’s car.
McLaren initially blamed this on Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso, both of whom were on the inside of Turn 1 - Alonso was on a very tight line, and Hulkenberg had to miss the apex of the corner to leave space for him.
And when Piastri cut back sharply from the outside to try to get a run on Norris, who had gone deep defending his position from his team-mate, the speed Piastri had to scrub off to do so meant he drove across the front of Hulkenberg’s car.
McLaren still believes that Hulkenberg and Alonso could have shown more prudence, but has also revised its position on the role Piastri played in its review of the incident, which happened post-event to avoid it being a distraction from qualifying and the grand prix last weekend.
Now, McLaren accepts that Piastri could have been more careful with his move, and he himself said he bore some responsibility.
As a result, and with Max Verstappen lurking so closely in the championship fight, McLaren has opted to undo its most recent intervention. Norris and Piastri are now on what Piastri called “a clean slate”, and the weekends will be run as normal.
"We've gone through it again, we go through every weekend regardless of what's happened," Piastri said.
"There is a degree of responsibility from my side on the sprint, and we're starting this weekend on a clean slate for both of us. Just going out and racing and see who can come out on top."
Piastri confirmed "the consequences on Lando's side have been removed" and that his aggressive cut-back out of Turn 1 had meant he took some of the blame for the Austin clash.
This is partly because it is deemed the right thing to do, given Norris had been punished for accidentally causing contact in the first place but also McLaren is aware there is a serious title threat outside its own team now.
The non-score for both McLaren drivers in the Austin sprint was painful as Verstappen went on to win that and then the grand prix itself on Sunday.
In doing so, Verstappen gained 23 points on Piastri – almost the equivalent of a full race win’s worth of points.
He is now 40 points behind the championship leader and only 16 points behind Norris in second place with five grands prix and two sprint races to go.
