‘Nasty' Oscar Piastri act called out by former world champ

News.com.au

7 hours ago

Lando Norris accepted the blame, but outspoken 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve says Oscar Piastri is not entirely without fault for the bundle between the two McLarens in Canada.
The dig at the world championship leader is the latest chapter in Villeneuve's book of disdain for Australian drivers after his regular targeting of Daniel Ricciardo.
Like his scathing assessments of Ricciardo during the twilight of his F1 career, the Canadian's opinion on the Norris-Piastri incident is sure to raise eyebrows.
As the two McLarens hunted a podium place in the dying laps of the Grand Prix won by Mercedes' George Russell, Norris crashed into the back of Piastri after anticipating a gap would open up on the inside of the first turn.
The Australian held his line however, Norris lost control, and slammed into the pit wall, wrecking his car and his race with three laps remaining.
Piastri drove on unscathed and held on to finish fourth, widening his gap over Norris in the drivers' standings to 22 points as a result.
The Brit immediately apologised on the team radio before making the walk of shame back to the garage.
Post-race, he reiterated those words to Piastri face-to-face, and then stressed his sorrow once again in his press conference.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown thanked Norris publicly for his 'candour', while Piastri said his teammate's willingness to admit his error was a great quality to have.
Team principal Andrea Stella, meanwhile, said Norris made a 'misjudgement' that 'should have not happened'.
The FIA stewards placed the responsibility for the incident firmly on Norris' shoulders too, slapping him with a redundant five-second time penalty.
The views of everyone directly involved contradicted those, however, of Villeneuve, who couldn't resist yet another chance to target an Australian driver.
'The clash between the two McLaren drivers, [it was] easy to point the finger at Norris,' he said.
'He realised too late that Piastri was moving towards the left because he had his nose in the gearbox of Piastri, he didn't realise it and Piastri was edging gradually towards the left.
'He's not supposed to be doing that, it was a little bit nasty, so there will be some talks later inside the team.'
Esteemed F1 commentator Martin Brundle was another who reiterated that Norris was at fault, and respected Piastri's tactics.
'Oscar did well to see the first move coming because Lando was a long way behind when he launched it into Turn 10,' he told Sky Sports.
'Lando probably thought he got him because Oscar was at an acute angle into the final chicane and tight and wide. Oscar wasn't being particularly kind to him, but then why should he? Lando seemed to persevere down that left-hand side when it wasn't on.
'I don't think it was anything other than not recognising early enough that it wasn't going to happen, followed by wiping his front wing on his rear tyres. It was just very clumsy and sort of unnecessary.'
Fans on social media love pushing the bold claim that Villeneuve — who was once engaged to pop singer Dannii Minogue — holds resentment towards Australians.
His comments about Piastri come after whacking Jack Doohan following his crash in practice in Japan earlier this year, as well as his long-running feud with Ricciardo.
Things got 'personal' between Villeneuve and Ricciardo at last year's Canadian Grand Prix when the 54-year-old responded to a question on Sky Sports during Friday practice about Ricciardo's future, by asking 'Why is he still in F1?'.
Villeneuve went onto torch Ricciardo's whole career even more harshly.
'He was beating a [Sebastian] Vettel that was burnt out, that was trying to invent things with the car to go win and just making a mess of his weekends,' he said.
'Then he was beating for half a season [Max] Verstappen when Verstappen was 18 years old, just starting.
'Then that was it. He stopped beating anyone after that.
'I think his image has kept him in F1 more than his actual results.'
After qualifying in fifth that week, Ricciardo then told ESPN that Villeneuve was 'talking s***'.
'I still don't know what he said, but I heard he's been talking s***,' he said. 'But he always does.
'I think he's hit his head a few too many times, I don't know if he plays ice hockey or something.
'I won't give him the time of day, but all those people can suck it.'
Australians are not the only ones in the opinionated former driver's sights however, as he also took aim at race officials for denying fans a more exciting finish in Canada.
The race ended under a Safety Car because of the McLarens crash, and Villeneuve suggested that a red flag should have been waved instead.
'What could have been, should have been an exciting race, turned into a not-so-exciting race,' he said.
'The end of the race – I mean, the rules allow for red flags so we can have a new start for a two-lap sprint, always exciting, and they decided to have a boring safety car finish. Well, too bad.'
McLaren team boss Stella said the team 'appreciated' Norris' response to the crash.
With the two drivers vying for world championship honours, there could be more incidents of its kind to come in the remaining 14 races.
Stella believes the internal rivalry will only make the team stronger.
'We did appreciate the fact that Lando immediately owned the situation, raised his hand, and took responsibility for the accident,' he said.
'He apologised immediately to the team. He came to apologise to me as team principal in order to apologise to the entire team.
'It's important the way we respond and we react to these situations, which ultimately will be a very important learning point.
'I don't think it's learning from a theoretical point of view, because the principle was already there, but it's learning in terms of experiencing how painful these situations can be, and this will only make us stronger in terms of our internal competition and in terms of the way we go racing.'