McLaren throws "full support" behind Lando Norris after “miscalculated” F1 crash

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella issued a swift response to Lando Norris' crash with team-mate Oscar Piastri at the F1 Canadian GP

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella offered his "full support" to Lando Norris after his driver took the blame for colliding with his F1 team-mate Oscar Piastri in the Canadian Grand Prix.

After fighting wheel to wheel for fourth place over several laps, Norris closed in on Piastri on the start-finish straight with four laps remaining out of 70.

Norris then made an error of judgement as he attempted to pass Piastri on the left into a closing gap, driving into the back of his team-mate and then hitting the pitwall to suffer terminal suspension damage.

The Brit immediately owned up to his mistake over team radio, saying it was "all on me" as he suffered a big points loss in the drivers' championship, and he later also apologised in person to Stella and Piastri, who escaped damage to finish fourth.

Responding to the incident, McLaren boss Stella said the team would have internal conversations on how to avoid a repeat, but he offered support to Norris as the Briton immediately shouldered responsibility for the clash.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

"It's up to us as a team to show our full support to Lando," Stella said. "We will have conversations and the conversations may be even tough, but there's no doubt over the support we give to Lando.

"The situation would be different if Lando would have not taken responsibility and apologised. This is just a result of a miscalculation, a misjudgement from a racing point of view, which obviously should not happen, but at the same time is part of racing.

“And we did appreciate the fact that Lando immediately owned the situation. He raised his hand. He took responsibility for the accident, and he apologised immediately to the team.

"How we react to these situations will ultimately be a very important learning point. In the coming days, we will have to go into what is needed in order to make sure that when we go racing, we preserve the margins that are required."

Stella didn't believe any lingering frustration from Norris over his botched qualifying session, which left him facing a comeback race from seventh on the grid, played part in the incident.