Friendly Fire: The True Cost of Norris’s Crash at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix

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‍One small mistake…

While team orders–“papaya rules” for the race radio aficionados–have prevented much McLaren versus McLaren racing during the first nine rounds, we finally got to see Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri face off. Norris started the race a solid four places behind Piastri, but eventually made his way to the heels of his teammate. After trading positions back and forth through the hairpin turn, the two were in a dead heat along the straights of the iconic Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Both drivers pushed to their limits, and for a moment it was truly impossible to tell who would come out ahead. Piastri got the upper hand though, leading through the final chicane of the track and on to the start-finish straight. 

And that is where it all went downhill. 

Norris made a move to Piastri’s left, where there simply wasn’t enough room between the leading McLaren and the wall for him to squeeze between. Instead, he ended up clipping the rear of Piastri’s car before meeting the wall, costing him his front wing and, ultimately, his race as he came to a smoking halt off the side of the track.

But more than that, the incident cost McLaren a shot to rectify a shaky weekend, and Norris a chance to put a dent in Piastri’s Championship lead. 

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… Many heavy consequences

With the powerhouse of a car that McLaren has built, and Norris and Piastri’s exceptional skills and talent, the two were bound to eventually come face to face. Time and time again, the team has said that Piastri and Norris were free to race, but that had yet to truly play out this season until the Canadian Grand Prix. And despite the fact that the two have never had a collision with each other before, this outcome was perhaps what McLaren had feared the most when it came to their drivers going up against one another. Being one car down is the last thing any team wants to happen, but it hurts all the more when it happens because of a tap between teammates.

Speaking about the crash with Sky Sports, team principal Andrea Stella commented, “It is a misjudgement which cost Lando quite a lot in the Championship. It was about to cost many more points for the team, already costed for the team, so definitely an incident that should have not happened.”

Norris was running in P5 when the collision happened. Had he and Piastri not made any contact, McLaren could have walked away with a P4-P5 finish, regardless of driver order, and taken home 22 points to extend their lead in the Constructors’ Championship. There was even a chance that one of them might have caught Antonelli for the final spot on the podium and a few extra chips.

Instead, McLaren was lucky to walk away with 12 points at all. This was their worst result yet of the 2025 season, and the only time they’ve collected points from just one car. Meanwhile, their competitors profited much more. Both Ferrari and Red Bull added 18 to their total, while Mercedes bagged a whopping 40 points with their P1-P3 finish. 

McLaren still has an extremely comfortable lead in the Constructors’ standing. Their 374 points are nearly twice that of Mercedes’ 199. But it is not yet insurmountable. With Mercedes seemingly overcoming their weaknesses in high temperatures, Ferrari occasionally finding form, and Max Verstappen chasing his fifth title, incidents like this can open doors to opportunities that any of them will gladly take advantage of.

The crash also came with material costs to McLaren. Norris lost at least his front wing, and likely did damage to the sidepods and wheel support after scraping along the barriers of the circuit. While the exact figures are impossible to know, the sort of damage that Norris’s car saw could have easily racked up a six-figure bill that McLaren will have to fork up from their cost-cap budget. And this, in turn, could affect what they’re able to do in terms of upgrades down the line.

Nonetheless, Stella made it clear that the team will pick up the pieces and move on. In the team’s post-race report, he said, “The team appreciated that Lando immediately took responsibility for a situation which has cost him important points in the Championship. We will now regroup, take our time to review a few things and make sure we come back stronger, and continue what has been an extremely positive season so far.”

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A clash that was only a matter of time 

Yet it is Norris himself who may be paying the biggest price of the incident.

Norris came into the 2025 as the heavy favorite for the Drivers’ Championship. With a series of stellar performances throughout 2024, and at the wheel of the clear front-runner car, this year looked like it was his to grab the title from his friend and defending World Champion, Verstappen. 

Once the season picked up speed, however, it was Norris’s own teammate who proved to be a much bigger challenger. While Norris began the season ahead of Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship, Piastri quickly overtook the lead in Saudi Arabia. The battle between the two has been up and down since, with Norris visibly struggling to get comfortable in his car throughout a portion of the season. Things looked like they took a positive turn for him after a decisive pole and win in Monaco, and going into Canada, he trailed Piastri by just 10 points in the standings. 

That lead has now more than doubled, as Piastri’s P4 brought his lead over Norris to 22, the biggest it has ever been.

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With how tight the battles have been, the two McLarens look surely set to have a season-long battle for the Championship. This is precisely why any mistakes that either driver makes are going to be all the more costly, and a moment like the one that Norris had carry so much weight. By walking away with zero points, Norris’s fight for the title has become all the more challenging from here on out. It is by no means over, but it is another heavy loss that he will have to now contend with.

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It’s a mental game for Norris

Yet even more than that, he will have to contend with the feeling of letting his team down. Speaking with the media after the race, Norris said, “Every single weekend, I try and do well for (the team). More than I often try and do well for myself. 

“So when I let them down like this, and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, I have a lot of regret in something like that. I’m not proud of that, and I feel bad, and I feel like I let down my team. And that’s always the worst feeling.”

But the team has his back. Immediately owning up to the mistake has gone a long way in maintaining trust, and Stella has made it clear that McLaren are understanding of the situation. "It's up to us as a team to show our full support to Lando. The situation would be different if Lando would have not taken responsibility and apologized,” he said.

“This is just a result of a miscalculation, a misjudgment from a racing point of view, which obviously should not happen, but at the same time is part of racing.”

Indeed, tough rivalries and even tougher lessons like these are a part of racing. They are a brutal reminder of just how fine the margins can be in the pinnacle of motorsport. For Norris, the Canadian Grand Prix served as a costly lesson in those margins. Yet with more than half the season still ahead of him and a car with lightning pace, his Championship hopes are far from gone. Now it is up to him to take these lessons and learn from them, because in a fight between teammates this tight, there is no budget for friendly fire.