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McLaren Formula 1 executives Zak Brown and Andrea Stella pointed to rival drivers for the collision between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at the beginning of the United States Grand Prix sprint event.

The Australian driver, ahead of Norris in the standings by twenty-two points, bounced into his team-mate after colliding with the Nico Hulkenberg.

The crash forced out both team drivers out of the event, along with the Fernando Alonso, who was on the inner side of Hulkenberg.

McLaren Leaders Express Disappointment Over Crash

Brown, the team's CEO, commented to broadcasters that some of the driving at the front was "unprofessional", adding: "Obviously Hulkenberg made contact with Oscar and he had no reason being where he was."

The team team principal Stella added: "Our feeling is that we are disappointed that we didn't have the possibility to race."

"It is unexpected that some drivers with a lot of expertise fail to act with necessary care. Go to the initial turn, make sure you don't damage competitors and continue."

McLaren clarified that the team principal was pointing to both the Sauber driver and the Aston Martin driver.

Contrasting Views on the Crash

However, former champion Damon Hill, providing analysis for BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, said he thought the Australian had not shown enough awareness of the dangers of the opening turn of an Formula 1 event when he decided to move inside to try to overtake his teammate.

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

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

Driver Reactions After the Incident

Piastri said: "Not ideal but I haven't seen what occurred, I tried to move inside on Lando and we were both very far from the apex and then got a hit and it sent me into Norris. A shame."

His teammate commented: "I just got hit, right? I did nothing wrong. Behind us things happened and I just was unfortunate and got hit because of it. I don't know. I need to review a bit more thoroughly. It's more people behind just being a bit careless and we are the result of that."

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

Hulkenberg, who had earned a best qualifying fourth place, said: "Major disappointment. All the good work from the previous day in the trash. Just messy."

"Piastri steered inward pretty aggressively trying to get the undercut and way out of the first corner but I can't just disappear."

"I had Fernando attack on the inner side and I couldn't see him any more. I wanted to provide room for him and then Oscar steered inward and the collision was unavoidable."

Post-Crash and McLaren's Reaction

McLaren will review the incident with their racers but not until the race weekend. Both cars needed extensive work before grand prix qualifying at 22:00 BST on the weekend.

Stella said: "Overall 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 resume the weekend from there."

"We are in a strong position from our competitiveness point of view so I hope we have the possibility to compete, compete fairly and utilize our performance."

"The points are the most important thing, I prefer not to talk about mal-intent, just prudence. A bit more prudence would be good for everyone."

Standings Impact

The race was won by the Verstappen, who gained ground on both McLaren drivers in the championship - he is now fifty-five points behind Piastri and thirty-three behind of the Briton.

Stella said: "The implication is what the numbers show - we missed out on eight points with both racers, but we focus on ourselves. We have a highly capable car and two strong racers. We look forward to just some normal racing."

Verstappen said he was approaching the championship one event at a time.

United States Grand Prix

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

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