McLaren warn Norris and Piastri “there should never ever be contact” 

Oscar Piastri touched the side of teammate Lando Norris’ car when he ran deep into the first chicane after leaving the pit lane following a stop. 

“There should never ever be contact between two McLaren cars,” Stella said. “There was contact, which doesn’t fit the way we go racing at McLaren.”

Stella confirmed that McLaren will review what caused the coming together. 

“You just review things, like you do with anything that is technical or the rational racing,” he explained. “What is important is to have clear perimeter as to what you deem acceptable, and what you deem unacceptable. 

“It’s not an emotional thing. It’s just like you deal with other things, you deal with racing in a similar way. And this is very clear that for any driver, there’s something bigger than them. It’s the team.

“I need to review. I’m sure even the drivers will calibrate themselves for us in that situation.

“It’s always a little tricky when you leave the pits, especially on hard tyres. Certainly Oscar was trying to see where he could place himself so that he could keep the position, but on colder tyres, this could be slightly more difficult than he might have anticipated.

“So I think, we could absolutely conclude that this is just a little misjudgement, therefore it means there is no problem at all.” 

Stella added: “If the contract is due to the fact that there was pressure because of the undercut and so, then we have something to review. 

“Because it means the drivers put the team at risk because of affirming themselves. This is not acceptable.”

Despite the contact, Stella stressed Norris and Piastri remain free to race each other. 

“They are free to race,” he said. “My role is to give them principles, and a clear perimeter within which they can race. This is what we want to see. It’s exciting to see.

“Like even the Ferraris today, I’m sure on the Ferrari pit wall they were nervous, but it was a good spectacle, we want to see racing.

“But our role is to give the drivers a clear perimeter within this racing should happen. In terms of how you stay within the perimeter, it’s not for us to say because we are not the drivers.

“It’s actually in terms of having the skillsets to say ‘the tyres are a bit cold, maybe I need to take more margin’. Like it’s not for me to say, I’m not in the car. It’s just they need to appreciate that there’s no way the line should be crossed.”