McLaren braced for Oscar Piastri-Lando Norris repeat as instruction issued

McLaren boss Andrea Stella is braced for another collision between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, as he issued an instruction to his two drivers.

On Lap 66 of the Canadian Grand Prix, Norris clipped the rear of Piastri's car whilst fighting over fourth place, retiring from the race whilst Piastri actually extended his championship lead to 22 points after taking fourth. 

Both drivers and McLaren bosses Stella and Zak Brown had previously explained that they all expected a collision to happen at some point during the season as the two fight for the world championship, with Norris immediately apologising and taking responsibility for the clash. 

Reflecting on the incident, team principal Stella explained that he felt that a clash "will happen again" as he issued a firm instruction to both Piastri and Norris.

"The fact that the points we were fighting for were not a victory is just a very minor mitigation," Stella told media, including RacingNews365. 

"Our principle is that there should be no contact between two McLarens, so from this point of view, if anything, Lando pays the price from a championship point of view, it is lucky there is no double penalty with a points loss for the other car, which had no responsibility in this contact.

"In terms of moving forward and a possible repeat or not when we go racing, there are so many more races nowadays with 24 races and more and more Sprints, so there are more situations where we can have these kinds of episodes.

"Having the experience of this kind of situation will make us more robust as a team, and in terms of our two drivers against these situations, because with two McLarens racing close to one another, it will happen again.

"But there will have to be better judgment in terms of the distance between the two cars. 

"It is not like one driver wanted to demonstrate something, as if anything, the more dangerous situation was approaching the last chicane when they had DRS, as there could have been some misjudgements, as we have seen in the past."