Untelevised Max Verstappen message uncovered after Norris, Piastri collision
Untelevised team radio from the Canadian Grand Prix has revealed that Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s race engineer, initially felt Oscar Piastri was at fault for his collision with McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
It comes after Verstappen agreed with Mercedes driver George Russell’s assessment that “there was never a gap” for Norris to squeeze through on the main straight in Montreal.
Max Verstappen engineer’s initial response to Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris collisionNorris and Piastri made contact in the closing stages of Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix in the first major piece of contact between the F1 2025 title contenders.
While Norris was out on spot with terminal damage to his MCL39, Piastri went on to finish fourth, after a precautionary tyre change, to extend his lead in the World Championship to 22 points.
Norris, who was handed a five-second time penalty for the incident, accepted responsibility straight away by apologising to McLaren over team radio, acknowledging that it was “all my fault” and “stupid from me.”
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Norris was later seen seeking out Piastri in the TV pen in the paddock, where he apologised to his team-mate directly.
Mercedes driver George Russell went on to collect his first victory of F1 2025 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with Verstappen second and Andrea Kimi Antonelli third.
Verstappen’s fifth podium of the season on a day Norris failed to reach the chequered flag means the pair are now separated by 21 points ahead of Red Bull’s home race in Austria next weekend.
And an untelevised clip from the Canadian Grand Prix has appeared to suggest that Lambiase, Verstappen’s long-serving Red Bull race engineer, at least initially judged Piastri to be at fault for the collision between the McLaren drivers.
After Piastri and Norris make contact on the main straight on Lap 67 of 70, Lambiase is heard telling Verstappen: “OK, Norris has had contact with Piastri. Double yellows.
“Piastri put Norris on to the grass and into the wall along the start/finish straight. Safety Car. Stay out, Max.”
With Lambiase’s comment made in the heat of the moment and seconds after the incident in question, it is unclear whether his opinion on the clash between Piastri and Norris may have changed since.
Yet the race engineer’s judgement of the incident would appear to be at odds with the assessment of Verstappen, who agreed with Russell’s assertion that a move at that part of the track was never on for Norris.
As reported by PlanetF1.com on Monday, the top-three finishers in Canada were shown a brief highlights reel of the race in the cooldown room ahead of the podium ceremony.
When the collision between the McLaren drivers appeared on screen, Russell quipped: “I mean… there was not really a gap there, was there?”
Verstappen replied: “No.”
It represented a rare point of agreement between Verstappen and Russell, who are known to have an uneasy relationship and resumed their long-standing rivalry in Canada.
Verstappen arrived in Montreal on the brink of a race ban following an ugly incident with Russell at the previous race in Spain, which saw the Red Bull driver hit with a 10-second penalty and three penalty points.
After the pair qualified first and second on the grid on Saturday in Montreal, Russell joked that he would use Verstappen’s situation to his advantage on race day.
He said during the post-qualifying interviews on the grid: “We’re mates so it’s all good. I’ve got a few more points on my licence to play with!”
As revealed by PlanetF1.com on Tuesday, the latest flashpoint between Russell and Verstappen played out over a series of untelevised team radio messages behind the Safety Car.
Verstappen momentarily overtook Russell behind the Safety Car on the back straight, with the Mercedes driver reporting the potential transgression to his race engineer Marcus Dudley.
Verstappen was also heard drawing attention to Russell dropping in excess of the permitted 10 car lengths behind the Safety Car, with the latter arguing that he was simply driving to the delta time on his dashboard.
Both incidents were at the centre of a post-race protest by Red Bull, who accused Russell of driving erratically behind the Safety Car and dropping more than 10 car lengths behind it.
Speaking to media in Montreal, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner aired his belief that Russell had a “clear objective” on race day based on his comments after qualifying, hinting that the Mercedes driver was looking for opportunities to land Verstappen a penalty and a potential ban.
Red Bull’s protest was eventually rejected with Russell keeping the victory, the fourth win of his F1 career.
More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing from PlanetF1.comJacques Villeneuve, the 1997 World Champion, is among those to have questioned Piastri’s role in the collision with Norris in Canada, claiming the Australian moved across in a “nasty” fashion just before the contact with his team-mate.
In a clip posted to social media, Villeneuve said: “The clash between the two McLaren drivers, [it was] easy to point the finger at Norris.
“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.”
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