Laurence Edmondson
Singapore – It says a lot about the growing tensions of the Formula 1 pilot championship that the main subject of discussion Sunday evening in Singapore was not the surprise victory of George Russell or the defense of McLaren of the title of its manufacturers.
Even in the early hours of Monday morning, the opening contact between the teammates of McLaren Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri was micro -analyzed – as well as the potential ramifications with the remaining six races of 2025.
Given through the prism of FIA racing rules, contact between his teammates was nothing more than a race incident – whose genre occurs regularly in the first round of a Grand Prix. In the space of one minute, the commissioners noted the incident and decided not to investigate, which means that the collision, which caused no lasting damage to one or the other car, did not justify as much as a post-space declaration.
In the context of the Battle of McLaren’s internal title, however, the incident was always going to be more delicate. According to the team’s commitment rules, which promise the equity of the wall of the pit in exchange for any contact between the drivers on the right track, the incident was not acted. But this adds to a growing list of minor incidents and controversies that McLaren gently manages as the season reaches its peak.
What happened?
Since the fifth on the grid, Norris has made a good getaway and became aggressive at the beginning, moving Kimi Antonelli far from his grid point and launching his McLaren inside his teammate 1. Piastri left enough space for Norris to approach Turn 3 with Max Versappren is still in a closing space while the pair Turn 3 with Max Versapprend Betapen.
With a few centimeters between them, Norris was drawn at the level of the apex, but in doing so, cut the back of the Red Bull of Verstappen. In a fraction of a second, this contact saw the back of the slide of Norris’s car on the side, resulting in a second collision with Piastri, who was carefully trying to trace a course around the outside of the corner.
Norris received damage to the frontage of contact with Verstappen, but it was contact with Pitri who assured that he won third place. From that moment, Norris seemed to be the faster driver, and after having tracked Verstappen, he finished the race on the podium in front of his teammate in fourth position.
“I mean … It was not very team, but of course,” Piastri told team radio after contact. To ensure that his point was included, he followed a laconic radio exchange with the race engineer Tom Stallard.
Tour 3
Piastri: “Are we cool with Lando who makes me burst, or … What is it?”
Stallard: “Oscar, we look at him. Let me answer you.”
Tour 4
Stallard: “I need you to focus on what we can do here. Control the controls, guy.”
Stallard: “No other action by the delegates. As a team, we can see that Lando had to avoid Verstappen, so we will not take any measure during the race. We can re -examine further.”
Piastri: “It’s not fair. Sorry, it’s not fair.”
Stallard: “Oscar, opportunity to review together. Focus on this race, guy.”
Piastri: “Yes, but if he has to avoid another car while crashing into his teammate, it’s a nice job to avoid.”
As striking as the comments of Piastri’s radio can appear, they are fully understandable given its point of view on the incident. From the on -board camera of the car 81, the contact between Norris and Verstappen was not visible, and it seemed that Norris had lost the back of his car and has a career in his teammate.
During a season when McLaren reiterated a golden rule to avoid collisions – a message he clarified in Piastri over team radio after Miss with Norris at the same time at the Austrian Grand Prix and the Hungarian GP – he sought all the Norris teammates. Even knowing that Norris was trying to avoid the coming car, Piastri has argued the team radio that it should not be done at the expense of a collision with him.
But looked at in full flow and with the advantages of the angles of the two cars, it is clear that Norris could not do much to prevent contact with Piastri after hitting Verstappen.
“I need to look at the reruns more to find out exactly what happened,” said Piastri after the race. “I think the main thing is that the two cars meeting is never what we want. I will go see it in more detail and arrive at my conclusion then.”
For Norris, who regularly faced criticism for not having been aggressive enough in the first racing round, the space inside Piastri was always going to invite a passage to the Tour 3.
“Whoever on the grid would have done exactly the same thing as me,” he said. “So I think that if you blame me to go inside and put my car inside a big gap, then, yes, I think you should not be in Formula 1.
“So, you know, I don’t think there is something wrong that I did. Of course, I badly judged a little how close to Max I was, but it’s racing. Nothing happened otherwise, and I’m sure I’m always finished before the Oscar anyway because I had to revise it.
“The last thing I want is to contact my teammate, especially because everything I receive is questions (the media). So you know, I am the one who cannot afford anything in relation to him. I will put myself at risk just as much if this kind of thing was going on. So, yes, I will see what I can too.”
Why did McLaren not intervene?
Whatever the side of the argument you are on, it is clear that there was a contact between the two pilots. Since last year, when McLaren has disclosed the details of his “papaya rules” for the first time, there has been a clear directive that the two pilots are allowed to run but must do it in a clean way and without colliding.
After the Italian Grand Prix of this year, in which Piastri was invited to restore a position to Norris after a sloppy sloppy sequence, it is also clear that the wall of the McLaren pit is ready to intervene if he considers that a driver has acquired a position in a way that is not considered right. It goes without saying, therefore, if Norris had unfairly acquired a position by collizing with Piastri, he could have asked his drivers to change places.
When asked why McLaren had not intervened, the director of the Andrea Stella team said that it was the conviction of the pit wall that the contact between her cars was the result of the initial collision with Verstappen and makes it a racing incident.
1:06
McLaren wins the titles of the consecutive manufacturers in Singapore
Take a look at the figures behind the 10th Championship of McLaren manufacturers after George Russell won the Singapore Grand Prix.
“In terms of contact between our two pilots, this contact is, in reality, a consequence of another race situation which occurred between Lando and Verstappen,” said Stella. “So, certainly, because there was a contact in itself, it will lead to an examination and good conversations. But for the moment, we thought that this contact was more the result of another race situation, let’s say.
“We will see if there is learning and everything we need to refine in terms of our approach, but I think that will lead to good conversations.”
Stella said that he fully understood the frustration demonstrated by Piastri during team radio, but reiterated that McLaren asked her drivers to let off steam openly on team radio rather than running with repressed frustration.
“Obviously, Oscar made some statements while he was in the car,” said Stella. “But this is the kind of character we want to have of our drivers – they must make their position very clear. This is what we ask them.
“At the same time, we have to put things in perspective: the prospect of a driver who is in a Formula 1 car with the intensity of that of the first round. And the perspective which obviously saw Lando move towards him, but we know that Lando, in real estate, has had good conversations.”
What is the following for the battle of the title?
The importance of these conversations before the next round in Austin, Texas, cannot be underestimated. With six races remaining in the championship, Piastri now leads Norris of 22 points, while Verstappen, who finished second in front of the two McLarens, reduced the gap behind Piastri to 63 points.
If these shortcomings continue to close – as they have done in the last three races – the internal pressure of McLaren will only progress. This threatens to put increased pressure on the team’s racing rules, which must also take into account a growing list of previous and controversy.
Stella is fully aware of the pressure that her team undergoes and the importance of entering each weekend of race with all parts on the same wavelength.
“Whenever we start our conversations with the pilots, we always remember, as premise, it’s difficult,” he said. “Because this is the only question in which, when you run together as a team, you cannot have exactly the same interest in the two pilots, because they want to continue their aspiration, and it is a fundamental principle of the way we run in McLaren.
“We want to protect this concept” let them run “. We know that as soon as you adopt this concept, you encounter difficulties, and we remember, but it is in this consciousness, self -awareness, in a way, that we develop our conversation.
“You must be meticulous, and you must have an integrity in the approach, and I am very proud of the way in which Lando and Oscar have been part of the process so far, because if we have been able to sail through the latter, let’s say, difficult factors, it is because we have succeeded in succeeding and in Oscar. In front, in which we will continue to run with Lando and Oscar.”
But with all the goodwill in the world, the rules of engagement between two drivers can only do a lot. In 50/50 situations, each individual will interpret these rules to adapt to their own interests and will argue the point later. Too is online to do otherwise.
He will only have to rule in McLaren here.
