Yesterday, a small episode enlivened the Formula 1 paddock. The two protagonists of McLaren, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, had contact during the Monza Grand Prix. Luckily the collision didn’t cause any damage to the two drivers, but it was an episode that caused much talk.
Monza was one of the most exciting races of this season. With a not exactly normal start, rather chaotic, between anxieties and pressures but with a now obvious ending. The race started for McLaren with Piastri (P7) ahead of Norris (P9).
After the initial start chaos the McLaren drivers were stuck being the Williams of Alex Albon. Subsequently, Norris asked the team to let him pass because he thought he had more pace. After Piastri’s pit stop to switch to Hard tyres, he rejoined the circuit together with Norris, who had stopped in the pits the previous lap. And so the two, during the 25th lap, had contact with each other while battling for ninth position.
Double bad luck for Piastri, who damaged his front wing in a fight with Lewis Hamilton on lap 42. The result is a penalty for the Englishman, of a good five seconds.
The incident that landed Lewis Hamilton with a five-second penalty 💥
Hamilton later apologised to Piastri for the clash#ItalianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/AGyIGnSkTQ
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 3, 2023
A harmless contact
Despite the contact, both drivers minimized the incident. Norris, in a relaxed tone, explained: “We respect each other and give each other space. The accident was just an unfortunate accident.” The British then added that, despite everything, there was no damage and therefore there is no reason to worry.
The contact between the McLaren pair drew harsh words from team principal Andrea Stella after the race, who said it was “unacceptable” that they should be able to collide with each other, and that “there must be no contact” in the future.
The causes of the contact
The cause of the contact may have been a combination of cold tires and understeer. “I think Piastri was on cold tires or something like that, and so he had a bit of understeer,” said Norris. This theory was also confirmed by Piastri, who stated: “I really couldn’t slow down any more because I was almost locking up the tyres.”
During an interview in Hungary, the British driver Lando Norris said the same thing, also adding that the team had given him the preferred strategy twice. In that race Norris came out victorious, finishing in second place while his teammate had to ‘settle’ for fifth place.
Emotions run wild at Monza
Monza is certainly a race that has given us many emotions, a race that has shown us that often the desire to fight stops at nothing, not even in front of teammates (as well as the great battle between Sainz and Leclerc).
Definitely Mclaren, from the bad start at the beginning of the season has recovered a lot, being able to compete with the other opponents. Clearly it is a single-seater on which there is still a lot to work on, but certainly among the various aspects that Mclaren has improved this year, we must dwell on the pit stops. With a start of the season in which they lasted over 4 seconds, between basic slowness and mechanical disasters. But right now, it’s demonstrating and taking the small improvements to the track.
