McLaren understandably wanted the post-Singapore headlines to focus on their 10th constructors’ championship victory rather than the latest flashpoint between their two drivers.
So team principal Andrea Stella and Racing CEO Zak Brown were more eager to talk up their triumph than delve into the rights and wrongs of Lando Norris’s forceful first-lap pass on Oscar Piastri.
“[It was] tough racing, but when you’ve got three or four cars all stacked up, that’s going to happen every once in a while,” said Brown immediately after the race. “So we’ll look at it in more depth on Monday, but clearly just hard racing.”
During the race Piastri’s engineer Tom Stallard told him the team had decided not to intervene in response to the collision. “We can see Lando has to avoid Verstappen so we won’t take any action during the race,” he explained, “we can review further afterwards.”
“That’s not fair,” Piastri replied. “If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team mate, then that’s a pretty shit job of avoiding.”
But McLaren appear to have changed their minds at some point since then, as Norris revealed on Thursday in Austin. “There are and will be repercussions for me to the end of the season,” said Norris, “so it’s not like I’ve got away with anything.”
Why have McLaren decided to take action now, having chosen not to in Singapore? After all, the most obvious way to remediate the situation would have been to swap the running order of their drivers, which they have already done several times before: in Hungary last year (Norris let Piastri by), Brazil last year (Piastri let Norris by) and Monza this year (Piastri let Norris by again).
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It’s possible McLaren were anxious not to allow one of their cars to drop back from Verstappen in Singapore and risk missing a chance to ‘undercut’ him through the pits. But an immediate or last-lap position swap would not have brought that risk.
That indicates McLaren have changed their view of the incident after the race. So what could the “repercussions” be for Norris?
A position swap remains a possibility, though it could carry the same risks as in Singapore. Moreover, out of fairness the team may prefer to only do that if the drivers are separated by the same number of points – i.e. running second and third or third and fourth – and a convenient opportunity to do that may not arise over the remaining six rounds.
Norris’s remark that the repercussions will apply “to the end of the season” suggests McLaren have something else in mind. There are many routine decisions teams have to make in which they could divide advantages evenly between their drivers – or not.
For example, which driver gets first choice of when to run in qualifying? Do they want to be first out and get the benefit of free air or run after another car to pick up a slipstream? Perhaps Piastri will get the first choice for the rest of the season.
Do both cars receive upgrades simultaneously or does one driver get them first? In 2023 and 2024 Norris routinely received new parts before Piastri, but that changed this year. If Piastri were to receive upgrades first over the remaining races that could disadvantage Norris but at this stage in the year, with new regulations arriving next season, McLaren may not have any updated parts coming (they have only brought one in the last five rounds).
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Or McLaren could revise aspects of their race operations. At present, as is routinely the case at other teams, the leading driver gets first call on whether to pit, as Norris benefited from in Singapore and Monza.
Perhaps he will have to forfeit that chance before the end of the season and Piastri will get a chance to ‘undercut’ him? But this could also prove risky to the team, particularly given their spate of slow pit stops in recent races.
Whatever McLaren have decided to do, this marks a new phase in their painstaking efforts to impose what they regard as fair competition between their drivers. It is a philosophy which has critics and supporters among their rival drivers.
But with Verstappen catching both drivers in the championship McLaren cannot afford to allow either an erosion of trust between their drivers or a points loss to a rival who does not have to worry about playing nicely with his team mate.
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2025 Singapore Grand Prix
- What are McLaren’s “repercussions” for Norris and why did they wait to apply them?
- Hamilton “had no choice” about cutting corners when brakes failed in Singapore
- Norris reveals he faces ‘repercussions to the end of the season’ over Piastri clash
- Russell denies Verstappen a ‘full set’ of wins, Hamilton breaks Schumacher record
- ‘Good shout on staying out’: Did Verstappen consider a second pit stop in Singapore?