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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the team will speak privately with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after their collision on the final lap of the Singapore Grand Prix sprint, calling the contact unacceptable and costly. The stewards took no further action, finding both drivers contributed and neither was wholly or predominantly to blame. The crash sent both McLarens into a spin, eliminated Piastri and left Norris to finish eighth.

The wet sprint ran for 20 laps on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. Norris attempted to pass Piastri on the inside at Turn 5, but the gap narrowed as they reached the apex and their cars struck. Piastri’s MCL40 sustained severe rear damage and hit the barrier on the outside; Norris continued after the spin.

McLaren had to repair Piastri’s car and replace its gearbox, adding work for mechanics during a sprint weekend and costs under the team’s budget cap. The incident also cost the team championship points. The drivers had been disputing fourth place, a position that offered one point in the sprint, and the collision came as McLaren competed for third in the constructors’ championship against a resurgent Red Bull.

Stella said the team had been in a position to score points despite not being able to win the sprint. “The sprint race was a race that was giving us some good points,” he told Sky. “In a moment in which we are not in condition to win, still we were in condition to score good points, and we saw two McLarens having contact.”

He said both cars were effectively out of the contest after the crash. “Basically [they went] out of the race. Lando could score one point, but definitely that’s not enough,” Stella said. “Seeing two McLarens making contact like that is simply not acceptable.”

Immediately after the incident, Stella appeared upset and described the contact as unacceptable. After initial private discussions with the drivers, he told written-media reporters that the financial and sporting consequences made the episode serious. “It is serious because the damage for the team is material. We are in a close fight in the championship. We had the ambition to challenge Ferrari and we have an ambition to finish ahead of Red Bull, and this is a problem to finish ahead,” he said.

Stella said the collision was also serious because the team and its drivers had spent previous seasons discussing how to race together and protect McLaren’s interests. “It is also serious because we come from a few seasons in which we have reflected together, team and drivers, as to how we approach racing together and how we make sure that the interest of the team is protected,” he said.

McLaren had already tightened its rules of engagement, known as the Papaya Rules, after several incidents in 2025. The latest contact brought those earlier tensions back into focus, though the circumstances differed: McLaren had since been overtaken as Formula 1’s dominant team by Mercedes, and Norris and Piastri were fighting for a single sprint point rather than a championship-defining result.

The previous Singapore Grand Prix, exactly a year earlier, saw Norris push Piastri out of the way at the start. Neither car was damaged, but the drivers were fighting for the championship and Norris faced repercussions from the team. That followed Norris hitting the rear of Piastri’s car at the Canadian Grand Prix. McLaren’s undefined repercussions lasted about half a race weekend, until Piastri took Norris out at the start of the Austin sprint and the team reset its approach.

Stella said he understood that top drivers could act unpredictably, so the Singapore collision did not surprise him. “That's an interesting question,” he said when asked why it had happened again. “Surprised? I've worked with top drivers for so many seasons that I know that with drivers there's always a degree of unpredictability. I'm not necessarily surprised. I know that these things can happen.”

He said he was disappointed as team principal because the crash caused material damage and ran counter to the expectation that team interests come before personal interests. Stella said the team needed to reflect on how to prevent similar incidents. He added that the immediate priority during a race weekend was keeping the team and drivers in a functional condition to continue performing, with fuller discussions to take place after the weekend and before the race.

Stella said he trusted Norris and Piastri to continue considering what happened and draw the necessary lessons. “We will have time to go through the various conversations after the race weekend and before the race, but I trust, because I know both drivers enough, that they will keep reflecting on the episode and I trust and I'm pretty sure that they will extract the key learning without me having to say very much,” he said.

He said McLaren did not want to focus on which driver was more at fault or on apologies. “You know, the aspect of apologies, fault, one driver is predominantly [at fault]...Honestly, that's not the perspective I have and that's not the perspective I want from the drivers,” Stella said. “The reflection is [about] how, together, we are going to pursue, protect, promote the interests of the team. This is the assignment. I'm not looking for any apologies. I know the drivers; they are two excellent human beings.”

Stella said the team wanted to understand how the drivers could work together to keep a repeat from happening. “This is business and as a business I want to know: 'How do we work together to make sure that this does not happen anymore?'” he said. “We approach it with a very constructive mindset because there's only one outcome. That the team will be more united and the team will be stronger in the way we pursue our quest, which is the drivers and the team's quest together.”

Norris apologised to Piastri and the team. In a radio message after the crash, he said: “Sorry about that. Obviously I didn’t want that to happen but I thought I was fully alongside. I just ran out of space at the apex but I was there.” He later said he believed the attempted pass was legitimate, while acknowledging that the gap closed more than he wanted and that he had tried to avoid contact.

“In the last lap there was a big opportunity into [turn] five so I went for it,” Norris said. “The gap closed a bit more than I would have liked and obviously I’ve had to back out of it because the gap was closing. So I’ve tried to avoid the incident and obviously there still was one, but it was a big gap so I went for it, I have the right to do that. The rest we go review as a team.”

After qualifying, Norris said both drivers could have done more to avoid the crash, a view consistent with the stewards’ decision. “As you probably expect, no one's very happy. I'm not happy. Oscar wasn't happy,” he said. “None of us wanted to go that way. There were things both of us could have done better. And yeah, we spoke about it and we moved on.” He also said that although he was entitled to attack, he was the one making the move and apologised.

Piastri said Norris had apologised and that the team had moved on. “The biggest thing obviously is we just can't have that happen in terms of the points and also the workload and money,” he said. “It just wasn't a situation that needed to happen, really. So, Lando apologised and we moved on.”

He said the drivers had made contact before but were able to apologise and continue working together. “Unfortunately, it's not our first coming together, but I think we're both very good at saying sorry when we need to and moving on, and I think that's what makes us strong as a team.” Asked about the stewards’ view that he contributed, Piastri said: “I mean, I don't think there was anything massively out of line, but at the same time it's not very smart to try and get each other penalties, is it?” He also said the collision showed that “it was clear that those kind of things can’t happen.”

In their written decision, the stewards said Piastri had not expected Norris to try to pass and noticed the McLaren on the inside after turning in, then attempted to leave room. Norris said his front axle was ahead of Piastri’s mirror before the apex and that he expected space. As he approached the apex, the available room was less than he anticipated; he used the inside kerb and braked before contact occurred. The stewards reviewed the incident and spoke to both drivers, then determined that neither was wholly or predominantly at fault and took no further action.

The Singapore sprint also included other steward investigations. Alexander Albon was cleared after being investigated for driving in the wrong direction following a spin, and Oliver Bearman was cleared over a possible case of driving unnecessarily slowly. The stewards reviewed marshalling and positioning data, timing information and onboard cameras in Bearman’s case. They found that the driver stayed at or above the speeds needed to remain below 1:52.0 for most of the circuit, took appropriate steps not to impede others and slowed significantly to give another driver a clear track.

Sergio Perez was found predominantly at fault for contact with Lance Stroll at Turn 16 and would have received a five-second time penalty. Perez tried to pass on the inside, but locked his front-right wheel and could not rotate the car. The stewards considered the wet conditions and the difficulty of braking, but applied no penalty because Perez did not finish and five-second penalties regularly do not convert to grid drops.

The stewards also took no action over a separate incident involving Albon, Gabriel Bortoleto and Valtteri Bottas. During the Safety Car restart preparation, car 23 hit car 5 and car 77 then hit car 23. The stewards found the collisions resulted from cars ahead travelling at inconsistent speeds, creating a concertina effect that was more pronounced towards the back of the queue. They said the driver of car 77 could have avoided the second impact by leaving more room, particularly in the damp conditions, and would have received a five-second penalty if the car had not retired. No penalty was applied because Bottas retired and a five-second time penalty would not have converted into a grid penalty.

Albon’s investigation concerned his car facing oncoming traffic after a spin at the exit of Turn 5. The stewards said car 41 drove about 100 metres back towards Turn 5, against the direction of traffic but at the track edge and away from the racing line, after Albon could not turn the car around where it had stopped. He waited for the last car to pass, tried a flick turn that failed, then drove to Turn 5 where there was room to turn. Given the car’s position and the absence of oncoming traffic, the stewards found the action was not unsafe in the circumstances.