🔗 Share this article

McLaren and Formula One would benefit from anything decisive in the championship battle between Norris & Oscar Piastri being decided on the track and without resorting to the pit wall as the championship finale begins at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday.

Singapore Grand Prix fallout prompts team tensions

With the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and tense debriefs concluded, McLaren is aiming for a fresh start. Norris was likely more than aware about the historical parallels of his riposte to his aggrieved teammate during the previous race weekend. In a fiercely contested championship duel with the Australian, his reference to a famous Senna most famous sentiments did not go unnoticed but the incident that provoked his comment was of an entirely different nature from incidents characterizing Senna's iconic battles.

“If you fault me for simply attempting on the inside through an opening then you don't belong in F1,” Norris said of his opening-lap attempt to overtake which resulted in their vehicles making contact.

The remark seemed to echo the Brazilian legend's “If you no longer go an available gap which is there then you cease to be a true racer” defence he provided to Sir Jackie Stewart after he ploughed into the French champion at Suzuka in 1990, ensuring he took the championship.

Parallel mindset yet distinct situations

While the spirit is similar, the wording is where the similarities end. Senna later admitted he had no intent to allow Prost to defeat him through the first corner while Norris attempted to make his pass cleanly in Singapore. Indeed, his maneuver was legitimate that went unpenalised even with the glancing blow he had with his McLaren teammate as he went through. That itself stemmed from him touching the car of Max Verstappen in front of him.

The Australian responded angrily and, notably, instantly stated that Norris's position gain was “unfair”; the implication being the two teammates clashing was verboten by team protocols of engagement and Norris ought to be told to return the place he had made. The team refused, but it was indicative that in any cases of contention, both will promptly appeal to the team to step in on his behalf.

Squad management and fairness under scrutiny

This comes naturally from McLaren's commendable approach to let their drivers race one another and strive to maintain strict fairness. Aside from tying some torturous knots when establishing rules about what defines fair or unfair – under these conditions, now covers misfortune, tactical calls and racing incidents such as in Singapore – there remains the issue regarding opinions.

Most crucially to the title race, six races left, Piastri leads Norris by twenty-two points, there is what each driver perceives on fairness and at what point their perspectives might split with that of the McLaren pitwall. Which is when the amicable relationship among them could eventually – become a little bit more the iconic rivalry.

“It’s going to come a point where a few points will matter,” said Mercedes team principal Wolff post-race. “Then they’ll start to calculate and re-calculations and I suppose the elbows are going to come out further. That’s when it starts to become thrilling.”

Viewer desires and title consequences

For spectators, in what is a two-horse race, increased excitement will probably be welcomed in the form of an on-track confrontation rather than a data-driven decision of circumstances. Especially since in Formula One the other impression from these events isn't very inspiring.

To be fair, McLaren are making the correct decisions for themselves with successful results. They clinched their 10th constructors’ title at Marina Bay (albeit a brilliant success diminished by the controversy from the Norris-Piastri moment) and in Andrea Stella as squad leader they possess a moral and upright commander who genuinely wants to do the right thing.

Racing purity against team management

However, with racers in a championship fight looking to the pitwall to decide matters is unedifying. Their contest ought to be determined through racing. Chance and fate will have roles, but better to let them simply go at it and observe outcomes naturally, than the impression that each contentious incident will be pored over by the squad to ascertain whether they need to intervene and then cleared up later in private.

The scrutiny will increase with every occurrence it risks potentially making a difference which might prove decisive. Already, following the team's decision for position swaps at Monza because Norris had endured a slow pit stop and Piastri feeling he had been hard done by with the strategy call at Hungary, where Norris won, the shadow of concern about bias also emerges.

Team perspective and future challenges

No one wants to see a title endlessly debated because it may be considered that fairness attempts were unequal. Questioned whether he felt the team had managed to do right by both drivers, Piastri responded he believed they had, but mentioned that it was an ever-evolving approach.

“We've had several challenging moments and we’ve spoken about a number of things,” he said post-race. “But ultimately it's educational for the entire squad.”

Six races stay. The team has minimal wriggle room left to do their cramming, so it may be better to just stop analyzing and step back from the fray.