Lando Norris defied Andrea Stella’s clear McLaren warning before Oscar Piastri crash at Canadian Grand Prix

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Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were involved in a long-anticipated incident at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday. McLaren bosses knew it was coming.

With two drivers at a similar level competing for the biggest prize, a collision felt inevitable. But for McLaren, it could have been far worse than the Montreal collision.

While the team lost at least 10 points, it’s unlikely there will be a major fallout behind the scenes. They still lead the constructors’ by 175 points from Mercedes.

Norris immediately took responsibility for the lap 67 tangle. He received a five-second penalty, but that made little difference as he had to retire with damage.

The Englishman offered his apologies to Piastri, who was able to continue and finish fourth. If anything, the driver of car 81 may have benefited, extending his championship lead to 22 points.

Lando Norris was warned to treat the Canadian Grand Prix as a ‘damage limitation’ exercise

This was McLaren’s weakest weekend of 2025. Even before the incident, they were on course to collect just 22 points.

In qualifying, neither driver made it onto the front row for the first time all year. Piastri was third behind polesitter George Russell and Max Verstappen, while an error-strewn Q3 left Norris seventh.

In light of that lowly grid slot, Andrea Stella told Norris to prioritise ‘damage limitation’. He admitted that the picture had changed ‘completely’ for the erstwhile favourites.

The message from Stella was clear: avoid any unnecessary risks, bring the car home for a solid points finish, and move on. But Norris didn’t follow that advice.

Lando Norris’ moment of McLaren brilliance in Montreal will be forgotten

Norris has been widely criticised for attempting to squeeze past Piastri through a gap that looked impossibly small on the main straight. The driver himself called the move ‘stupid’ over the radio.

It will, unfortunately, raise further questions over his racecraft. He was only in a position to overtake because he’d forced Piastri off line with a smart lunge at the hairpin – conventional DRS-assisted passes were proving very difficult to pull off.

But that smart tactic will be forgotten because of what came next. Sky Germany pundit Timo Glock can’t ‘understand’ what Norris was thinking.

Nico Rosberg says Stella needs to have a ‘talk’ with Norris to review the incident. The key is to ensure his judgement doesn’t fail him again at a high-stakes moment.