Oscar Piastri believes McLaren's latest car-on-car contact in the Singapore Spring is "worlds apart" from the controversy in 2025.
During the closing stages of the Marina Bay Sprint, Lando Norris attempted to pass Piastri up the inside of Turn 5 for fourth place, but misjudged the move and sent Piastri into the barriers, whilst he recovered and got going to claim eighth place and one point.
In a close fight for third in the constructors' against a rejuvenated Red Bull, McLaren lost eight points in the incident, with team principal Andrea Stella declaring that the incident was "not acceptable" and vowed to remind the drivers about McLaren's racing ethos - papaya rules.
At the start of the 2025 race, Norris barged past an outraged Piastri at Turn 3, with the Australian believing a clear breach of papaya rules had occurred - with Norris subsequently confirming that he was subject to "consequences" at the next race.
At that next race, Piastri then caused a Turn 1 incident that eliminated both he and Norris in the United States GP Sprint - with the Singapore Sprint incident the fourth collision between the pair, after a minor one at the 2024 Italian GP.
Reflecting after the stewards decided to award no penalties, and qualifying sixth for the grand prix, and starting next to Norris in fifth, Piastri felt that the 2025 and 2026 Singapore incidents were "worlds apart."
"Just in isolation, obviously the situation this year is worlds apart from last year," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365.
"It was just a shame for the team to miss out on points and add to the workload and the damage bill.
"Lando apologised; it wasn't a bad manoeuvre necessarily. I think just in the context of where we are, it didn't need to happen, but we've moved on as a team.
"The biggest thing is obviously we just can't have it happen in terms of the points and workload and money, and it was a situation that didn't need to happen.
"Unfortunately, it is not our first time coming together, but I think we've both very good at saying sorry when we need to and moving on, and that's what makes us good as a team."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, but also look ahead to this weekend's race in Singapore. The confusing and shocking start is a major talking point as is Red Bull's rise.
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