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The British racing team and F1 could do with anything decisive during this title fight involving Norris & Piastri getting resolved through on-track action rather than without resorting to the pit wall with the championship finale begins this weekend at Circuit of the Americas on Friday.

Singapore Grand Prix aftermath leads to team tensions

After the Marina Bay event’s doubtless extensive and stressful debriefs concluded, McLaren will be hoping for a fresh start. Norris was almost certainly fully conscious about the historical parallels of his riposte to his aggrieved teammate during the previous grand prix weekend. In a fiercely contested title fight against Piastri, his reference to one of Ayrton Senna’s most famous sentiments did not go unnoticed yet the occurrence which triggered his statement differed completely to those that defined the Brazilian’s great rivalries.

“Should you criticize me for just going an inside move through an opening then you should not be in F1,” Norris said of his opening-lap attempt to pass that led to the cars colliding.

The remark seemed to echo the Brazilian legend's “If you no longer go an available gap which is there you are no longer a true racer” justification he gave to Sir Jackie Stewart following his collision with the French champion at Suzuka in 1990, securing him the title.

Similar spirit but different circumstances

Although the attitude remains comparable, the phrasing marks where parallels stop. The late champion confessed he never intended of letting Prost to defeat him at turn one while Norris did try to execute a clean overtake in Singapore. Indeed, it was a perfectly valid effort which received no penalty even with the glancing blow he had with his McLaren teammate as he went through. That itself was a result of him clipping the car of Max Verstappen in front of him.

The Australian responded angrily and, notably, immediately declared that Norris gaining the place seemed unjust; the implication being their collision was verboten under McLaren’s rules of engagement and Norris ought to be told to return the position he gained. McLaren did not do so, yet it demonstrated that during disputes between them, each would quickly ask the squad to step in on his behalf.

Squad management and impartiality being examined

This comes naturally of McLaren’s laudable efforts to allow their racers compete one another and to try to be as scrupulously fair. Aside from tying some torturous knots when establishing rules about what defines fair or unfair – under these conditions, now covers misfortune, strategy and on-track occurrences like in Marina Bay – there remains the issue of perception.

Most crucially to the title race, six races left, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points, each racer's view exists as fair and at what point their perspectives might split with that of the McLaren pitwall. That is when their friendly rapport between the two could eventually – 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 post-race. “Then they’ll start to calculate and back-calculate and I guess aggression will increase a bit more. That’s when it starts to get interesting.”

Viewer desires and championship implications

For spectators, in what is a two-horse race, getting interesting will likely be appreciated as a track duel instead of a spreadsheet-based arbitration of circumstances. Especially since in Formula One the other impression from all this is not particularly rousing.

Honestly speaking, McLaren are making appropriate choices for their interests and it has paid off. They clinched their tenth team championship in Singapore (albeit a brilliant success diminished by the fuss prompted by the Norris-Piastri moment) and in Andrea Stella as team principal they have an ethical and principled leader who truly aims to act correctly.

Racing purity against squad control

However, with racers competing for the title appealing to the team for resolutions is unedifying. Their competition ought to be determined through racing. Luck and destiny will have roles, yet preferable to allow them just battle freely and observe outcomes naturally, than the impression that each contentious incident will be analyzed intensely by the team to determine if they need to intervene and then cleared up afterwards behind closed doors.

The scrutiny will intensify and each time it happens it is in danger of possibly affecting outcomes that could be critical. Previously, following the team's decision their drivers swap places at Monza due to Norris experiencing a delayed stop and Piastri believing he had been hard done by with the strategy call in Budapest, where Norris triumphed, the shadow of concern of favouritism also emerges.

Team perspective and upcoming tests

Nobody desires to see a title constantly disputed because it may be considered that the efforts to be fair were unequal. Questioned whether he felt the team had managed to do right by both drivers, Piastri said that they did, but mentioned that it was an ever-evolving approach.

“There’s been some difficult situations and we discussed a number of things,” he said after Singapore. “However finally it’s a learning process for the entire squad.”

Six meetings remain. McLaren have little room for error for last-minute adjustments, thus perhaps wiser now to simply stop analyzing and withdraw from the fray.