What’s next for McLaren after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri scrap at the Canadian Grand Prix?

Everyone expected an incident like this when the season began, but where does McLaren go from here?

Since the beginning of the Formula 1 season, this moment was coming.

Sunday in Montreal, it arrived.

In the closing laps of the Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were battling for fourth place, with hopes of a fight further up the grid on the table for the McLaren driver who emerged victorious. But those hopes were dashed when Norris clipped the rear of Piastri’s MCL39, ending Norris’ day and bringing out the Safety Car to freeze the field.

In the laps leading up to the incident, Norris had been inching closer and closer to Piastri, pulling within DRS range of his teammate and making several attempts to shape a move on Piastri. Then on Lap 66, Norris gave it another shot at the hairpin, inching ahead of Piastri momentarily.

But Piastri held firm on the inside line, and while the two drag raced back to the final chicane and the “Wall of Champions,” Piastri inched back into the lead. As Lap 67 began the two raced wheel-to-wheel once more, before Norris finally clipped the rear of Piastri’s car as he tried to inch by him on the outside line.

You can see the entire sequence here:

Immediately after the incident, Norris apologized to his team, calling the move “stupid” on his part. Cameras then caught him after the race apologizing to Piastri for the incident in the media pen:

Speaking with Sky Sports F1 in the media pen, Norris accepted all responsibility for the incident.

“No one to blame but myself, so I apologize to the whole team and to Oscar as well for attempting something probably a bit too silly.

“Glad I didn’t ruin in his race. In the end apologies to the team.”

When asked about the notion that everyone, including McLaren, knew an incident like this would happen and that there might be a benefit to getting it out of the way, Norris described his move as “silly.”

“This was just more silly. This wasn’t even like a ‘that’s racing’, it was just silly from my part,” added the McLaren driver.

As for how Norris will reset for the Austrian Grand Prix, he indicated further apologies were in order, as well as some sleep.

“I go to bed tonight and apologise to everyone and then crack on.”

On his side of the garage, Piastri described the incident as “not ideal” for the team.

“Obviously it is not ideal for anyone, but I haven’t seen the incident so I don’t know exactly what happened. If Lando has taken full responsibility, that’s how it goes I guess. A tricky race in general, and a not ideal finish,” said Piastri.

“He made a large move into Turn 10, held my own into the chicane. it was a tough battle but a clean one and I think it was just unfortunate really. We are both fighting for a World Championship, and I am thankful to the team that they allow us to race and I don’t expect anything to change on that.”

In his comments to the media, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella framed the Lap 67 incident as a “misjudgment” from Norris.

One that cost him “quite a lot” in the Drivers’ Championship.

“We never want to see a McLaren involved in an accident, and definitely we never want to see the two McLarens touching each other,” began Stella.

“We need to review, as this is a clear principle, at the same time it is an incident from a misjudgment, Lando misjudged the distance to the car ahead and owned it immediately, which we appreciate.

“Our drivers will learn, and we go racing again. It is a misjudgement that cost Lando quite a lot in the Championship.”

The bigger question, beyond how this happened, is where McLaren goes from here. Is it truly for the best that an incident many were expecting happened in June, rather than November? Could an incident like this happen again? After all, despite the results Piastri remains at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings with Norris still in second, now 22 points behind.

Perhaps Montreal was not the best circuit for McLaren, but the Austrian Grand Prix could again prove fertile ground for the MCL39, meaning Piastri and Norris could be fighting at the front again when the grid roars back to life in a few weeks.

Finishing up his remarks, Piastri did not expect any major changes.

“I don’t expect this to change anything in terms of that. We’ll keep going racing through the year,” added the Championship leader.

Will Sunday’s incident in Montreal change nothing at McLaren?

Or will it change everything?

Time will tell.