How Norris and McLaren have learned from Montreal clash

Norris insists that the team has come back stronger after reviewing what happened in the Canadian GP

In the immediate aftermath of the collision between the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Canada team boss Andrea Stella was quick to suggest that now the inevitable contact had been got out the way everyone would learn and move on from it.

It was a sentiment echoed in Austria on Thursday by Norris, in the wake of some frank discussions over the past 10 days or so about the Briton breaking rule number one – hitting your team mate.

Norris, who took full responsibility within seconds of the incident happening, agrees that valuable lessons have indeed been learned - albeit via a somewhat painful process.

“There's been a good amount of talks, there's been good understanding of everything, realising my thoughts and understanding things from my side and explaining that to the team,” he said.

“But I think I made it clear from the immediate moment that I misjudged it, and I took the fault for it.

“Of course, not the most joyful conversations, but conversations that needed to be had, clearly, and obviously from us as a team, because it's not just about myself, it is how we perform as a team.

“And we all know what rule number one was, and continues and will always be. So some very constructive things, and in the unfortunate way, but a good way. I think many things have come out stronger than I would say they were prior to the weekend.

“Which you might have not expect, but I think is a good outcome. Through an unfortunate circumstance, a lot has been learned, and a lot of a lot of things have turned into being stronger than they were before, which is just a good thing for all of us.”

Expanding on precisely what had been learned Norris made it clear that it was more a case of maintaining trust, and that the actual Papaya Rules that govern how the drivers fight each other have not changed.

“No, everything's the same,” he said. “But I think one of the first good lessons was just me taking accountability for it, which I did in the moment, me owning up, me taking accountability for what happened, and responsibility for what happened.

“I think sets a good example for us as a team. Not that I'm here to try and set like the best example of how to earn up for mistakes! Also one of the things that over the last few years, we've done much, much better at, and I think we're at the top level now, is how we can work as a team.

“Because it's part of sport, it's part of nature and it's human to make mistakes, is taking responsibility, learning from it, and then coming forward and improving. So yes, I think from that point it was an unfortunate positive.

“But it's also between the trust and the honesty, I think that Oscar and I have for one another, it's important that we keep it up.”

Norris has seen how things can go wrong: “We stay strong as a team, because we don't want to have the downfall that we know many other teams have had in the past. We want to race each other fair and hard and on the limit, and not have a repeat of what happened last time out.

“And that takes both of us, even though Canada was on me. So, from a mentality point of view, from a constructive point of view, I think that's why it was positive.”

Norris admits that it wasn’t easy to get over the disappointment of Canada.

“It took me a little time, because my team means everything to me,” he said. “The people that I've grown up with, the people who have given me my opportunity in F1, and I want to win with McLaren.

“So for me, for what happened in Montreal, to have happened with my teammate, disregarding whether it was with any other car, but it was my teammate, this is probably the most painful part for me, because it's the last thing that I would ever want to happen between me and my teammate.

“Of course for the action to come for me, so I felt bad, I felt very bad for for the team, and all the people who work in McLaren. So it was a tough couple days.

“But also I think something I got better at is dealing with those moments and speaking to Andrea, my team around me, Zak, and trying to move on as quickly as possible was very important. So coming to this weekend with that in the past, and go again.”