McLaren issued 'homework' after Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri incident

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has stated the team must conduct “homework” following a small incident between its two drivers in Barcelona. Qualifying for last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix saw Oscar Piastri beat team-mate Lando Norris to pole position. During the Q3 segment, Norris began his first effort while Piastri concluded his, allowing the former to get a slight slipstream down the start/finish straight. Piastri labelled it as “cheeky” as Norris set a stronger initial benchmark before being bested by the Australian in the final attempts. Stella played down the significance of the incident, stating it is better for the drivers to voice their feelings rather than keep them contained. “It was a minor situation,” Stella told media including RacingNews365 . “We always tell our drivers ‘don’t leave anything in the back of your mind. Anything, throw it out, say what you think’.”

McLaren has managed to keep harmony between its drivers over the past year despite the team moving to the forefront of the F1 pecking order. Norris and Piastri are currently engaged in a championship battle with the latter leading the drivers' standings after nine rounds. Stella detailed it is ensuring it doesn't run into any unexpected complications by talking about them beforehand - something it failed to prepare for with the qualifying incident from Barcelona. “In this case, I think Oscar’s comment was to highlight a situation that we didn’t discuss before,” Stella added. “In itself, it’s not anything too controversial, but we did not discuss that before and we don’t want to surprise our drivers with situations that we didn’t discuss before. “So a little bit to take on for the team rather than for the drivers. “We have to do homework and be ready even more for the coming races, which surely will be interesting.”