Norris-Piastri incident 'threatens to derail McLaren harmony'

Oscar Piastri (right) started the Singapore race in third, two places ahead of Lando Norris, but was overtaken by his team-mate on the opening lap

Lando Norris says "anyone on the grid" would have made the move that led to renewed tension and controversy between the Briton and his McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Norris slid into Piastri on the exit of the third corner at Marina Bay after a bump with Max Verstappen's Red Bull ahead of him knocked his car sideways.

The incident threatens to derail the harmony that McLaren, through careful, thoughtful and open management, have so far managed to maintain between the two drivers.

Norris trailed Piastri by 25 points before the race, and narrowed that lead by only three points after he finished third behind winner George Russell's Mercedes and Verstappen, with Piastri just behind in fourth.

The Briton insisted he had done nothing wrong in getting past Piastri.

"Anyone on the grid would have done what I did," he said. "If you fault me for going for a big gap, you shouldn't be in F1.

"I was a little bit too close to Max, but that's racing. Nothing happened otherwise, I'm sure I would have ended up ahead of Oscar anyway because he had the dirty part of the track on the outside.

"Of course I need to go and review it and the last thing I want is contact with my team-mate. I am the one who can't afford anything. I would put myself at risk just as much if that kind of thing happened.

"I will have a look but the FIA obviously thought it was fine and the team did, too."

Norris denied he had been aggressive with Piastri. "I touched Max," he said, "so I wasn't aggressive on my team-mate."

'No concerns' that Norris may be getting preferential treatment

The moment it all became very tight between Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri at the start in Singapore

Piastri was unhappy about the incident. He said over the team radio that the team's decision to do nothing about it was "not fair".

After the race, he was more circumspect, saying he needed to watch the incident before commenting on it further.

"The main thing is the two cars coming together," he said. "It's never what we want, so I'll go and have a look at it in more detail."

The Australian has already been the driver to lose out in at least two controversial situations this year.

In Hungary in August, he was the lead McLaren driver early in the race but Norris was allowed to used a divergent strategy to beat his team-mate, a decision insiders in rival teams have questioned.

And in Italy in September, Piastri was ordered to let Norris back past him for second place after the Briton was delayed by a slow pit stop. Piastri complained that he thought there had been an agreement that a slow pit stop was just a part of racing that had to be accepted, but acquiesced anyway.

Behind the scenes, he was not happy about that situation, and he and the team held talks to resolve it.

But asked after Sunday's race in Singapore whether he had any concerns that Norris may be getting preferential treatment, Piastri said: "No."

Did he think the team had been fair all season?

"Ultimately, yes," Piastri said. "Could things have been better at certain points? Yes, but ultimately it's a learning process with the whole team and I'm very, very happy that the intentions are very well meaning, if that makes sense."

The incident is the second time the McLaren drivers have collided this year, after Norris ran into the back of Piastri while trying to overtake him in Canada in June and had to retire.

McLaren 'will come back stronger and even more united'

McLaren took home the title with six races of the season left

Team principal Andrea Stella said: "We will have good reviews, good conversations and, like after Canada, we'll come back stronger and even more united."

Stella said that although the team had reviewed the incident in its immediate aftermath, "this contact is, in reality, a consequence of another racing situation that happened between Lando and Verstappen".

Stella added: "Oscar made some statements while he was in the car but that's the kind of character that we want to have from our drivers. They have to make their position very clear, that's what we ask them.

"Our review needs to be very detailed, very analytical, it needs to take into account the point of view of our two drivers, and then we will form a common opinion based on which we will see whether we can just confirm our initial interpretation or there's something else that we should conclude.

"Every time we start our conversations with the drivers, we always remind ourselves, as a premise: 'This is hard'.

"Because this is the only matter in which, when you race together as a team, actually you can't have exactly the same interest for the two drivers, because they want to pursue their aspiration. This is a foundational principle of the way we were racing at McLaren.

"We need to be accurate, because there's a lot at stake. That's not only the championship points, but it's also the trust of our drivers in the way we operate as a team, and this is, if anything, even more foundational than the points themselves."

McLaren's 10th title 'remarkable achievement'

The controversy deflected attention from McLaren clinching the constructors' championship for the second year in a row.

It is McLaren's 10th constructors' title, moving them clear of Williams in the all-time list into second place behind record-holders Ferrari, who have won it 16 times since the championship's inception in 1958.

Their victory is one of the earliest times a team has done it. It equals Red Bull's feat in winning with six races to go in 2023, although that was a 22-race season compared with 24 this year.

It is also not as early in percentage terms as McLaren's 1988 title with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and the great McLaren-Honda MP4/4.

But the car has not had the superiority over the field shown by the winners in either of those years.

Red Bull won all but one race, and Verstappen all but three, in 2023. McLaren this year have had the best car, but crucially two drivers able to consistently win with it, while Sergio Perez faded badly after his two early wins that year.

Piastri and Norris have won 12 of the 18 races so far, seven for Piastri and five for Norris. Verstappen has four wins and Russell two.

McLaren's achievement is remarkable for the fact that it came in a season that was meant to be one of the most competitive in years.

McLaren's title last year was won at the final race under severe pressure from Ferrari, and as this is the final year of the current regulations, the teams were expected to converge further.

McLaren, though, caught them all on the hop with their MCL39 car, which has proved its superiority through devastating cornering speeds particularly in medium-speed turns, which are the most common on the calendar, and the best tyre usage on the grid.

It is not without its flaws - it does not excel in heavy braking and traction, or over bumps. But it is, as well as being arguably the most beautiful car on the grid with its elegant lines, especially seen from the side or rear three-quarters, also the most effective on average.

The key to this, says Stella, was "innovation". In suspension design front and rear, which have extreme levels of anti-dive and anti-lift to ensure a stable aerodynamic platform. In aerodynamics. And in cooling - the car has noticeably fewer and smaller vents than others, a key advantage when every extra opening of the bodywork has a cost in aerodynamic efficiency.

Stella said: "There was loads of innovation applied to what was last year's car, and this required quite a bit of bravery at some stage of the 2024 season to commit to the amount of changes that we have applied to go from the 2024 to the 2025 car.

"I talk about bravery, because our engineering understanding, our engineering execution has been challenged to the point of the leading edge of our knowledge."

McLaren's advantage has reduced as the season heads into its final stages. That is partly because of the characteristics of the three most recent circuits not suiting its capabilities, and partly because McLaren turned off the taps of development some time ago, and Mercedes and Red Bull still have new parts coming to their cars - both had new front wings here.

That decision by McLaren was rooted in the fact that they were seeing diminishing returns in developing this car, common when a design has such an advantage at the start of a season, and that they wanted to ensure they were well prepared for next year, when new chassis and engine rules could turn F1 on its head.

Norris, though, is well aware of the scale of his team's achievement, and the remarkable turnaround they have shown under Stella and chief executive officer Zak Brown from just over two years ago, when they started the 2023 season close to the back of the field.

There is also the context of the budget cap, and the fact that as world champions, the rules dictated that they were permitted less aerodynamic development time than any other team.

"Another one is a great thing," Norris said. "If you look where we were three years ago, we have outdone every team in terms of development in a time when it is harder to do with more restrictions and less wind tunnel time.

"In a time when it should be more difficult than ever to dominate, that's exactly what the team has done and given us, by a long way, the best car on the grid.

"That's always a very nice thing to say. It always puts a smile on your face. But we've also done very well as a team in terms of drivers, between Oscar and myself pushing each other and delivering every single weekend. You don't see that in any other team.

"I've been with McLaren since I started. It was a very different time and place then to where we are now.

"So that journey makes it more special - to know the downs, because that's a lot of what it was back then - to see the rise we've had, to see the teamwork, the changes, the atmosphere difference, and the leadership from Zak and Andrea especially, has turned things around and made us the best team in the world.

"That's something not many people ever get to say."