Brown blames ‘amateur hour driving’ from others in McLaren clash

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown described the first-lap incident that in which his two cars collided and retired from the Sprint at the United States Grand Prix as “amateur hour driving.”

Oscar Piastri attempted to cut back inside teammate Lando Norris at the apex of Turn 1 as they fought behind Max Verstappen, but with Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso on the inside the Sauber hit Piastri’s left rear, launching the championship leader into the air and into further contact with Norris. With both cars retiring on the spot, Brown pointed the finger of blame at Hulkenberg for the incident.

“That was terrible, neither of our drivers to blame there,” Brown told Sky Sports. “Some amateur hour driving from some drivers up there at the front wiped out our two guys.

“I want to see the replay again but clearly Nico drove into Oscar, and he had no business being where he was; he went into his left-rear tire.”

For his part, Norris did not directly name Hulkenberg for the incident, but also felt Piastri was clear of blame for the contact that took both out.

“I don't know what I'm meant to do in that,” Norris said. “I just got hit, right? I know I did nothing wrong. Further back things happened and then I just got unlucky and I got hit because of it.

“I don't know, I need to look a bit more carefully. It's more people further back just being a bit careless and we are the consequence of that.”

Piastri was also cautious about blaming any specific driver in the incident, but felt he was far enough away from the apex of the corner to be able to try and switch back to the inside against Norris.

“It's obviously not ideal, but I actually haven't seen what happened yet,” Piastri said. “I tried to cut back on Lando, we were both very far from the apex and then I got a hit and obviously sent me into Lando. So it's a shame.”