Lando Norris: What is McLaren's 'marginal' sporting sanction against British driver for Oscar Piastri collision most likely?

McLaren has caused a media storm at the United States Grand Prix by refusing to reveal details of a sporting penalty that will be imposed on Lando Norris for colliding with title rival and teammate Oscar Piastri in Singapore.

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella said after the race in Singapore that they saw no reason to intervene over the first-lap overhaul, but Norris shocked the pack on Thursday in Austin by revealing he would face “after-effects” that could affect him until the end of the season.

The Briton trails Piastri by 22 points with six rounds of the 2025 season remaining, with the undisclosed sanction set to intensify his task of chasing down the Australian.

Across two separate interviews with Sky Sports F1 on Friday at the Circuit of The Americas, Brown confirmed that the sanctions against Norris would be “marginal” and claimed the team would have “zero interference” on a grand prix Sunday.

With the team’s refusal to confirm the exact nature of the sanctions leading to huge uncertainty surrounding the Sprint event, Sky Sports F1 has collated the information shared by McLaren to assess what Norris’ punishment is most likely.

What did Brown tell Sky?

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 the commentary team from the McLaren pit wall during the weekend’s only practice session in Austin, Brown said the penalty was “a bit of a sporting aftereffect rather than what happened.”

Pressed on the details, he replied: “It’s marginal, it’s consistent with what happened. It’s a late-day racing incident, at the start of a Grand Prix on a track that was somewhat damp. It wasn’t intentional.

“It’s very marginal. It probably won’t be noticed. Lando and Oscar know what it is, which is the most important thing.

“Obviously we want to be transparent with our fans. We’re doing it the hard way and trying to let both guys race for the championship – the easy way out would be to have a one and two like some teams do, but that’s now how McLaren wants to race.”

Brown was also asked, in a separate interview, to clarify Norris’ suggestion Thursday that the penalty could affect him until the end of the season.

In a somewhat conflicted response, Brown said, “It’s a singular thing, but maybe not just a race.”

Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz then asked Brown if he could reassure McLaren fans that the team would not interfere with races on a Sunday.

Brown said there would be “zero interference” on a Sunday, before adding: “We want them to race. We’re excited. We treat them very equally, very fairly.

“I understand that everyone watching has a view, that’s a cool thing about sport, but I can tell everyone that we let them race hard, fair and square on a Sunday afternoon.”

What could the punishment be?

Although Brown did not explicitly confirm the nature of the sanction, he appeared to come to a strong conclusion that the punishment would take place on a Saturday rather than a Sunday.

That puts a possible procedural advantage into play for Piastri in qualifying, such as being able to choose whether to go out before or after Norris for decisive races.

Teams without a clear No. 1 driver would normally switch that privilege from race to race, allowing McLaren to give him that advantage at the next two races, for example, before going back to switch.

Piastri came out of the pit lane behind Norris for their only flying laps in the final leg of Sprint Qualifying in Austin on Friday, but Norris was faster as he finished second to Verstappen with Piastri third.

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle also speculated that Piastri could be favored if McLaren comes up with new parts before the end of the season.

“It will be something to do with a procedure I imagine that gives Piastri an edge over Norris,” Brundle said. “That’s the deal they want.

“You can race from lights out to the checkered flag, the only rule is that you can’t run into each other.

“It could be about slipstreaming, maybe Norris has to give Piastri a tow on some circuits, maybe if a new wing comes, a driver will get it.

“But they will not do anything that compromises the overall performance of the team and the two drivers against the opposition, especially with Max Verstappen cruising in their rear-view mirrors in the championship.”

Why is McLaren taking this approach?

While there is confusion in the paddock over McLaren sanctioning Norris for what many, including the stewards in Singapore, deemed to be a fair racing manoeuvre, the team say the decision has been made after consulting the framework they agreed upon at the start of the season.

Stella said on Friday: “The consequences or the consequences, they are part of our framework. This is something both drivers were keen to have in the racing framework.”

Perhaps more confusing to onlookers is the decision to announce the sanctions but refuse to share the details.

Regardless of whether one agrees with punishing Norris, it certainly would have made more sense for the team to publicly say the issue had been handled internally, and it was.

Instead, the entire paddock is trying to figure out what punishment Norris faces and how big it could prove in the title race.

It’s worth noting that it was Norris who first told the media that he was facing “repercussions,” so it’s also possible that he alone chose to share that detail, rather than it being agreed upon by everyone on the team to discuss the moves publicly.

Brundle ultimately concluded that McLaren is paying the price for opting to have two No.1 drivers.

He said: “The whole system is set up to fail. You have two extremely competitive athletes in a team environment, as employees and the last link in the chain representing 1500 people. They are paid as employees, but ultimately they are out on the track as individuals, so of course things will go wrong.

“McLaren chooses to handle it this way. Some will say, and I will say to a certain extent, the rules cover it and if you bump into each other you get penalties or punctures. This is how McLaren has decided to race.”

“The drivers know this overall ethos with Andrea Stella and Zak Brown taking them from last in the field at the start of 2023 to back-to-back champions.

“The two drivers are smart enough to know that the overall system works very well, but it feels a bit clunky because people don’t understand what’s going on.”

Sky Sports F1’s live United States GP programme

Saturday 18 October
17:00: US GP Sprint build-up
18:00: US GP SPRINT
19:00: Ted’s sprint notebook
21:00: United States GP Qualifying Build-up*
22:00: US GP QUALIFYING*
12:00 (Sunday morning): Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday, October 19
18.30: Grand Prix Sunday: USA GP build-up*
20:00: USA GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Checkered flag: US GP reaction
11:00 p.m.: Ted’s Notebook

* also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 is in North America for the US Grand Prix in Austin this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime