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McLaren Formula 1 leaders Zak Brown and Andrea Stella blamed rival drivers for the incident between Piastri and Norris at the start of the US GP sprint race.

The Australian driver, ahead of his teammate in the standings by twenty-two points, made contact with his team-mate after colliding with Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg.

The crash eliminated both team drivers from the event, along with the Alonso, who was on the inner side of the Sauber driver.

McLaren Leaders Express Disappointment Over Incident

Zak Brown, McLaren Racing's chief executive officer, stated to broadcasters that some of the racing at the start was "unprofessional", remarking: "Obviously Nico made contact with Oscar and he had no business being where he was."

McLaren F1 team principal Andrea Stella stated: "The reaction is that we are disappointed that we were denied the chance to compete."

"It's surprising that some drivers with a lot of expertise fail to act with justful prudence. Go to the first corner, make sure you avoid harming competitors and continue."

McLaren indicated that Stella was referring to both Hulkenberg and the Aston Martin driver.

Contrasting Views on the Incident

Nevertheless, former champion Hill, commentating for a sports broadcast, said he thought Piastri had not shown enough awareness of the dangers of the first corner of an Formula 1 event when he chose to cut back to try to pass his teammate.

Piastri had a stronger launch than the Briton and at first challenged on the outer side on the uphill approach to the turn.

But he then cut back in an effort to get a advantage on his teammate on the exit, only to hit Hulkenberg.

Racer Comments After the Collision

Piastri said: "Not ideal but I did not see what occurred, I attempted to cut back on Lando and we were both very far from the corner apex and then got a hit and it propelled me into Norris. A shame."

His teammate commented: "I just was struck, right? I did nothing wrong. Further back things happened and I just got unlucky and was struck because of it. I am unsure. I need to look a bit more carefully. It's more drivers further back just being a bit careless and we are the consequence of that."

The Aston Martin driver said: "At one point I thought I was in the correct position on the inner side, but some vehicles came very fast from the outside switching back and then I was there in the middle."

The Sauber driver, who had qualified a season-best fourth, said: "Major disappointment. All the strong performance from the previous day in the bin. Just messy."

"Oscar steered inward pretty forcefully trying to get the undercut and way out of Turn One but I cannot vanish."

"I had Fernando challenge on the inside and I couldn't see him any more. I wanted to leave space for him and then Piastri steered inward and the contact was unavoidable."

Aftermath and McLaren's Reaction

The team will review the crash with their drivers but not until the event weekend. Both vehicles needed extensive work before qualifying session at 10 PM BST on Saturday.

Stella said: "In general disappointed but we take it on the chin, we are now concentrating on fixing the vehicles, there is a lot to do and then we will restart the event from there."

"Our team holds a competitive place from our competitiveness point of view so I hope we have the possibility to compete, race normally and capitalise on our performance."

"Championship points are the most important thing, I prefer not to talk about bad intentions, just prudence. A little more prudence would be good for all involved."

Standings Impact

The race was won by Red Bull's Verstappen, who gained ground on both McLaren drivers in the standings - he is now 55 points behind Piastri and 33 adrift of Norris.

Stella said: "The consequence is what the maths says - we missed out on eight points with both drivers, but we concentrate on ourselves. We have a highly capable vehicle and two skilled drivers. We look forward to just some standard competition."

The Red Bull driver said he was taking the championship race by race.

US GP

17-19 October, with main event from 20:00 BST on Sunday

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