McLaren concerned Oscar Piastri clash could dent Lando Norris' confidence

McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella has acknowledged that Lando Norris’ race-ending shunt at the Canadian Grand Prix might dent his confidence.

Norris crashed out of Sunday’s race in Montreal after hitting the back of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

The McLaren teammates were battling hard for track position behind Kimi Antonelli in the latter stages of the race.

As Norris got a better exit than Piastri out of the final corner on Lap 67, the Briton tried to go to the left of his teammate despite there not being enough room.

Norris hit the back of Piastri and then clattered into the wall on the left-hand side, ending his race.

There’s been little fallout over it, given that Norris immediately apologised for his mistake.

Speaking after the race on Sunday, Stella conceded it could impact Norris’ confidence but outlined he has McLaren’s “full support”.

“Well, obviously it’s an episode which cost him a championship point,” Stella said as quoted by Motorsport Week. “It’s an episode for his own admission.

“He said the principle was clear, ‘I just made a misjudgement’, so he never came to say, ‘let’s talk about it’. So this may have an impact in terms of his confidence. But it’s up to us as a team to show our full support to Lando, and on this one I want to be completely clear, it’s full support to Lando.”

Situation would be different if Norris didn’t apologise

Stella acknowledged that the situation would be different if Norris didn’t apologise after the race.

The Italian is confident the events of the Canadian GP will make him a stronger driver.

“We will have conversations and the conversations may be even tough,” he added, “but there’s no doubt over the support we give to Lando and over the fact that we will preserve our parity and equality in terms of how we go racing at McLaren between our two drivers.

“The situation would be different if Lando would have not taken responsibility and apologised.

“Lando himself will have to show his character to overcome these kind of episodes, make sure that he only takes the learnings, he only takes what will make him a stronger driver, and dismisses anything which will be a little bit of, how to say, residual, a little bit of any influence for the future, which may not simply be good learning and a stronger driver.”