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McLaren along with Formula One could do with any conclusive outcome in the championship battle involving Norris and Piastri being decided on the track and without resorting to the pit wall as the title run-in kicks off this weekend at COTA on Friday.

Singapore Grand Prix fallout leads to team tensions

After the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and tense post-race analyses dealt with, McLaren will be hoping for a fresh start. Norris was almost certainly more than aware of the historical context of his riposte toward his upset colleague at the last race weekend. In a fiercely contested championship duel against Piastri, that Norris invoked one of Ayrton Senna’s most famous sentiments was lost on no one yet the occurrence that provoked his comment differed completely from incidents characterizing the Brazilian’s great rivalries.

“If you fault me for simply attempting an inside move of a big gap then you should not be in F1,” stated Norris regarding his first-lap move to overtake that led to their vehicles making contact.

The remark seemed to echo the Brazilian legend's “If you no longer go for a gap that exists you are no longer a true racer” justification he gave to Sir Jackie Stewart after he ploughed into the French champion at Suzuka back in 1990, ensuring he took the championship.

Similar spirit but different circumstances

Although the attitude remains comparable, the wording marks where parallels stop. The late champion confessed he had no intent to allow Prost beat him at turn one while Norris attempted to execute a clean overtake at the Marina Bay circuit. Indeed, his maneuver was legitimate that went unpenalised even with the glancing blow he made against his team colleague during the pass. This incident was a result of him clipping the car of Max Verstappen in front of him.

Piastri reacted furiously and, significantly, immediately declared that Norris gaining the place was “unfair”; suggesting that the two teammates clashing was forbidden by team protocols of engagement and Norris should be instructed to give back the place he had made. McLaren did not do so, yet it demonstrated that in any cases of contention, both will promptly appeal to the team to intervene in their favor.

Squad management and impartiality under scrutiny

This comes naturally from McLaren's commendable approach to allow their racers compete one another and to try to maintain strict fairness. Quite apart from tying some torturous knots in setting precedents over what constitutes just or unjust – which, under these auspices, now includes bad luck, tactical calls and on-track occurrences such as in Singapore – there is the question of perception.

Of most import for the championship, with six meetings remaining, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points, there is what each driver perceives on fairness and when their perspectives might split with that of the McLaren pitwall. That is when the amicable relationship between the two may – finally – turn somewhat into Senna-Prost.

“It will reach to a situation where a few points will matter,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff after Singapore. “Then calculations will begin and back-calculate and I suppose aggression will increase a bit more. That's when it begins to get interesting.”

Audience expectations and title consequences

For the audience, in what is a two-horse race, getting interesting will probably be welcomed as an on-track confrontation instead of a data-driven decision of circumstances. Not least because in Formula One the alternative perception from these events is not particularly rousing.

Honestly speaking, McLaren are making appropriate choices for themselves and it has paid off. They secured their tenth team championship at Marina Bay (though a great achievement overshadowed by the controversy from the Norris-Piastri moment) and in Andrea Stella as squad leader they possess a moral and principled leader who genuinely wants to do the right thing.

Sporting integrity versus team management

However, with racers competing for the title looking to the pitwall for resolutions is unedifying. Their competition ought to be determined through racing. Chance and fate will play their part, yet preferable to allow them simply go at it and see how fortune falls, rather than the sense that every disputed moment will be analyzed intensely by the team to ascertain whether intervention is needed and subsequently resolved later in private.

The examination will intensify and each time it happens it risks potentially making a difference which might prove decisive. Already, after the team made for position swaps at Monza because Norris had endured a delayed stop and Piastri feeling he was treated unfairly regarding tactics at Hungary, where Norris triumphed, the spectre of a fear about bias also emerges.

Team perspective and future challenges

No one wants to see a title endlessly debated over perceived that the efforts to be fair were unequal. When asked if he felt the team had managed to do right toward both racers, Piastri responded he believed they had, but mentioned it's a developing process.

“There’s been some challenging moments and we’ve spoken about various aspects,” he said post-race. “But ultimately it’s a learning process for the entire squad.”

Six races stay. McLaren have little room for error to do their cramming, thus perhaps wiser now to simply close the books and step back from the conflict.