Jolyon Palmer explains why Lando Norris might actually take positives from his Canadian Grand Prix incident with teammate Oscar Piastri, suggesting that the crash could highlight Norris’s race pace and strategic mindset despite the setback — offering encouraging signs for McLaren’s intra-team dynamics moving forward.
Lando Norris now faces his largest deficit in the 2025 drivers’ standings after crashing into his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, and retiring from the Canadian Grand Prix.
The 25-year-old has fallen to 22 points behind his 24-year-old stablemate in the F1 drivers’ championship following Sunday’s meeting in Montreal. Norris had not yet trailed Piastri by a margin larger than 16 points until the Canadian GP, but is now almost a full race win behind.
Norris had even led Piastri by 23 points after winning the Australian Grand Prix to begin the 2025 F1 season back in March, while the Melbourne native recovered to P9 after his spin in the rain whilst sat in second. Yet the shoe is on the other foot after Norris’ crash in Canada.
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Lando Norris will be ‘pleased’ Oscar Piastri did not retire due to their Canadian GP crash
Norris crashed into Piastri after misjudging an overtake in Canada, as the Briton tried to get around the Australian’s outside down the pit straight at the end of Lap 66 of 70. He had the overrun on his teammate, but Norris failed to realise that Piastri had not left him the space.
McLaren were somewhat fortunate that Norris did not damage Piastri’s car with their crash in Canada, with only the initiator retiring due to front wing and left-front suspension damage. So, Jolyon Palmer believes Norris will be ‘pleased’ that he did not also force Piastri to retire.
Norris cost himself the 10 points for fifth place in the Canadian GP by misjudging his chance to overtake Piastri for the 12 points for P4. Yet ex-Renault F1 racer Palmer also feels the fact Norris immediately apologised for crashing into Piastri will prevent a ‘civil war’ for McLaren.
Palmer told the F1 website: “I think McLaren, and probably even Norris, will be pleased that the incident didn’t take both cars out – even though it has ended up costing Lando 12 more points in the championship.
“The fact that Oscar actually benefitted from it, and Lando immediately held his hands up, means that the team will probably get away without civil war just yet.”
McLaren will demand improvements from Lando Norris after a mistake-ridden Canadian GP weekend
Norris crashing into Piastri near the end of Sunday’s Canadian GP was not the only irritating moment for McLaren in Montreal, too. Gary Anderson fears Piastri and Norris are becoming ‘complacent’ now, as well, after seeing them only manage to qualify in P3 and P7 in Canada.
McLaren paid the price in Q3 for Norris making yet more mistakes as the pressure rises, and would see another error arise during the Canadian GP as he crashed into Piastri. It was even an avoidable incident, but Norris had tunnel vision to try and claim the inside line for Turn 1.
So, the Woking squad will now surely demand that Norris improves when the pressure rises. McLaren have often seen the Bristol native crack under pressure this year, after Norris called himself ‘clueless’ after qualifying P6 in Bahrain and an ‘idiot’ for his Q3 crash in Saudi Arabia.
