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The British racing team and Formula One could do with any conclusive outcome during this championship battle involving Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri getting resolved on the track rather than without reference to the pit wall with the title run-in begins this weekend at COTA starting Friday.

Singapore Grand Prix aftermath prompts internal strain

With the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and tense debriefs concluded, McLaren is aiming for a reset. The British driver was likely fully conscious of the historical context of his riposte to his aggrieved teammate during the previous grand prix weekend. In a fiercely contested title fight with the Australian, his reference to one of Ayrton Senna’s well-known quotes did not go unnoticed yet the occurrence which triggered his statement differed completely to those that defined Senna's great rivalries.

“If you fault me for just going an inside move of a big gap then you should not be in Formula One,” Norris said regarding his first-lap move to pass that led to the cars colliding.

His comment seemed to echo Senna’s “Should you stop attempting an available gap that exists you are no longer a racing driver” justification he gave to the racing knight following his collision with Alain Prost in Japan back in 1990, ensuring he took the title.

Similar spirit but different circumstances

Although the attitude remains comparable, the wording is where the similarities end. The late champion confessed he never intended of letting Prost to defeat him at turn one while Norris attempted to make his pass cleanly at the Marina Bay circuit. Indeed, his maneuver was legitimate which received no penalty despite the minor contact he had with his McLaren teammate during the pass. That itself stemmed from him touching the Red Bull of Max Verstappen ahead of him.

Piastri reacted furiously and, notably, immediately declared that Norris's position gain was “unfair”; the implication being the two teammates clashing was verboten under McLaren’s rules of engagement and Norris ought to be told to give back the place he had made. McLaren did not do so, yet it demonstrated that during disputes between them, both will promptly appeal the squad to step in in their favor.

Team dynamics and fairness under scrutiny

This comes naturally from McLaren's commendable approach to allow their racers compete against each other and to try to be as scrupulously fair. Quite apart from tying some torturous knots when establishing rules over what constitutes just or unjust – under these conditions, now includes bad luck, strategy and on-track occurrences such as in Singapore – there remains the issue of perception.

Most crucially for the championship, six races left, Piastri is ahead of Norris by 22 points, there is what each driver perceives as fair and at what point their opinion may diverge with that of the McLaren pitwall. Which is when their friendly rapport among them may – finally – become a little bit more the iconic rivalry.

“It’s going to come to a situation where a few points will matter,” commented Mercedes team principal Wolff after Singapore. “Then calculations will begin and back-calculate and I suppose aggression will increase a bit more. That’s when it starts to get interesting.”

Audience expectations and title consequences

For the audience, during this dual battle, getting interesting will probably be welcomed in the form of a track duel instead of a spreadsheet-based arbitration of circumstances. Not least because in Formula One the alternative perception from all this is not particularly rousing.

Honestly speaking, McLaren is taking the correct decisions for their interests with successful results. They clinched their tenth team championship at Marina Bay (though a great achievement overshadowed by the controversy from their drivers' clash) and in Andrea Stella as squad leader they possess a moral and principled leader who genuinely wants to do the right thing.

Racing purity against team management

However, with racers competing for the title appealing to the team to decide matters is unedifying. Their contest ought to be determined through racing. Chance and fate will play their part, but better to let them just battle freely and observe outcomes naturally, rather than the sense that every disputed moment will be pored over by the squad to ascertain whether intervention is needed and then cleared up later in private.

The examination will intensify and each time it happens it risks possibly affecting outcomes that could be critical. Already, after the team made for position swaps in Italy because Norris had endured a slow pit stop and Piastri believing he was treated unfairly regarding tactics in Budapest, where Norris won, the spectre of a fear of favouritism also emerges.

Team perspective and upcoming tests

Nobody desires to witness a championship endlessly debated over perceived that the efforts to be fair were unequal. When asked if he felt the team had acted correctly toward both racers, Piastri responded that they did, but noted that it was an ever-evolving approach.

“There’s been some challenging moments and we’ve spoken about a number of things,” he said after Singapore. “But ultimately it’s a learning process with the whole team.”

Six races stay. The team has minimal wriggle room left to do their cramming, thus perhaps wiser to just close the books and withdraw from the fray.