George Russell recalls McLaren déjà vu in Canada: “Just like Button and Hamilton in 2011”. George Russell recalls a strikingly similar McLaren crash from 2011 after Norris and Piastri collide in Canada.

The 2011 clash and George Russell’s memory
Formula 1 fans with a few more years behind them probably thought of it immediately. The papaya-colored crash in the final laps of the Canadian GP, on the start-finish straight, is a faithful replica of the same bumper car-style collision that involved the Woking cars — in the exact same spot — back in 2011, when the livery was still silver and the drivers were Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

Rewatching the images of the Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri collision in the post-race cooldown room, George Russell — the day’s winner — remembered it too, showing an impressive memory. The Englishman, born in 1998, was just 13 years old when that crash happened, during what went down in history as the longest race ever in Formula 1.

A repeat 14 years later, but this time there’s someone to blame
The visual similarity between the two McLaren crashes is striking: the point of contact is practically the same, and the outcome is also similar — the car behind comes off worse, breaking its front wing and suspension by hitting the wall and being forced to retire.

The only difference (apart from the weather) is a formal one: in Sunday’s crash, blame was assigned to Lando Norris, who was behind and tried to dive into a gap that didn’t exist — as he admitted himself, and as the stewards also concluded, handing him a penalty. In 2011, neither Lewis Hamilton nor Button were penalized, and the incident was ultimately dismissed as a racing incident.