Lando Norris was still defending his lunge at Marina Bay on Saturday night. By Sunday evening he had switched to full contrition. Guenther Steiner says there was nothing political about the swing.
Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, the former Haas team principal credited Stella’s handling of the fallout with pulling the McLaren driver into line.
“He realised he was a little bit too cocky,” Steiner said of Norris.
“You really shouldn’t be doing this. This was not a world champion move.”
Steiner’s reading is that Stella sat Norris down and made the point in plain terms, and that the climbdown that followed was genuine reflection rather than damage control.
What actually happened at Turn 5
The contact came on the last lap of the Singapore sprint on 10 October, as Piastri and Norris ran fourth and fifth. Norris dived down the inside at Turn 5, clipped Piastri’s right rear, and both McLarens spun. Piastri hit the wall and was out; Norris limped home eighth for a single point.
Stewards took no further action, ruling on the incident.
“Both drivers had contributed to the incident and neither driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collision.”
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Norris’s own first take leaned on the opening he had seen.
“It was a big gap, I went for it, I have the right to do that,” he said after the sprint.
From “I have the right” to “I let down the team”
By the time he had served out Sunday’s grand prix, where he recovered to fourth, the line had changed completely.
“It’s pretty straightforward. I can’t attempt what I did. I should never have attempted in the first place, even if the move was on. I’ve got to think of the team that I represent more than myself,” Norris told reporters.
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“It was a mistake on my part, and I let down the team. I’ve also apologised to all of them, I owe them all an apology, and I will do better next time.”
McLaren CEO Zak Brown was blunter still about where the team stood.
“That was a ‘don’t do that again.’ And we didn’t say please. That’s an order,” Brown said, calling the clash “an unnecessary result for the team when a lot of pressure is on.”
Piastri, who had been running fourth before the hit, offered only a brief line.
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“Lando apologised and we moved on,” the Australian said.
Austin next, with pressure still on
Norris sits sixth in the drivers’ standings on 201 points, well adrift of a championship led by Kimi Antonelli on 340. Piastri is seventh on 138.
The next round is the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, with practice from Friday 23 October and the race on Sunday 25 October 2026 at 3pm local time.
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