McLaren retained the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship at the Singapore Grand Prix, but the achievement was somewhat shrouded by its drivers coming together on the opening lap.
The papaya squad secured the title for the second year running at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, with Lando Norris taking third place, enough to mathematically secure the ultimate prize again. Despite winning a consecutive teams’ championship for the first time since 1991, a blemish in its tight-knit ‘team first’ principles was potentially compromised at lights out.
With Oscar Piastri looking to take second from a slow-starting Max Verstappen, the Australian was thwarted and subsequently sent into the path of Norris, who had jumped Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes off the line. Norris got alongside his team-mate halfway through the sweeping opening sequence and, having the inside line going through Turn 3, nudged Piastri wide having tapped the rear of Verstappen’s Red Bull ahead only mere seconds earlier.
Piastri quickly took to his radio to tell race engineer Tom Stallard that the push wasn’t fair and “not very team-like”. When Stallard confirmed the stewards took no action and the status quo would remain, Piastri’s blood pressure seemed to soar as high as the Singapore temperature.
“If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that’s a pretty **** job of avoiding,” he retorted bluntly.
Norris was unrepentant, explaining the importance of getting clear of Piastri and Antonelli to launch an onslaught on Verstappen.
“I got across and put myself in a good position to not get checked up out of Turn 1 and into 2. I had a big gap on the inside of Oscar,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “It was just very close, still slippery because it was still damp in places and drying out. I think I just clipped the back of Max’s car and that’s just given me a little correction, but then that was it. Good in terms of I got two positions and if I didn’t get them there, I probably would never have got them, because, like we saw, it was too difficult to overtake. The aggression there paid off.”
Piastri commented that he would wish to see the incident back to provide a clearer response to it, rather than just in the heat of the moment, but disagreed with any notion that Norris was being afforded preferential treatment, saying “No” when asked if he thought this was the case.
Whilst both men categorically denied that the situation at McLaren will now change, the fact that the coveted Constructors’ Championship is now sewn up, it begs the question: will Norris and Piastri be able to give it the full beans with each other if they are racing for position and the title?
Andrea Stella and Zak Brown are, deep down, racers, and whilst the Italian has always espoused the idea of the two racing, it is provided that it occurs without detriment to the team. Does this now mean potential on-track duels between the two will now have a rougher edge?
Piastri has shown a preparedness to get his elbows out in wheel-to-wheel combat with Norris, almost wiping out his team-mate with attempts to pass in both Austria and Hungary. However, the Australian has walked the tightrope better than his British counterpart, who ran into Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix and has now initiated the latest contentious incident between the two. With Norris still trailing 22 points behind – almost an entire race win – with six rounds remaining, the long-time McLaren driver has perhaps shown a sign that he is now willing to take more risks.
Of course, contact with more sizeable consequences would be a greater blow to Norris’ ambitions than Piastri’s – something that the former acknowledged in the press conference. “The last thing I want is to make contact with my team-mate, especially because all I get is questions from you guys,” he quipped. “I’m the one that can’t afford anything compared to him. I would put myself at risk just as much if that kind of thing happens. So, yeah, I’ll see what I can do with it next time. But the FIA obviously thought it was fine, and the team did too. So, that’s it.”
But while Piastri’s anger had subsided once he addressed the world’s media, there can be no doubt that the championship leader will give no quarter the next time he goes wheel-to-wheel with the sister McLaren. The on-track kiss between the two might have overshadowed McLaren’s crowning moment, but it has set the other championship contest up as a real treat.
READ MORE – How McLaren plans to proceed amid driver contention after F1 Singapore GP
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