McLaren’s promise to Oscar Piastri of a “detailed” and “very analytical” review of his Singapore Grand Prix clash with Lando Norris shows there is more at stake right now than just the few championship points lost.
Piastri’s annoyance at what he felt was a “not fair” decision by McLaren to allow his team-mate to keep the place gained, after the pair banged wheels on the exit of Turn 3 on the opening lap, cast a shadow over the squad’s constructors’ championship success.
As an isolated moment, the Norris/Piastri incident was not so dramatic that it required immediate action from either McLaren or the FIA.
But what has made it so important is that it has to be seen in the context of a number of flashpoints this year where McLaren’s intervention, in ensuring fairness in the title battle, has not always been accepted as just by both drivers.
In particular, it is not hard to see why, from Piastri’s perspective, he may feel that there have been too many times when he has been on the hard end of the bargain.
Over the recent run of races, he lost out to the fairness of Norris’s strategy freedom at the Hungarian GP, the swap of the positions in Italy after Norris's slow stop, and now his team-mate being allowed to bang wheels with him while overtaking him in Singapore.
And this puts one of the core aspects of the way that McLaren has chosen to go racing at risk of collapse – in that the approach of fairness in its 'Papaya Rules' only works if everybody believes in it, abides by it and trusts it is being applied equally.
This is something that McLaren boss Andrea Stella spoke about in Singapore on Sunday night when he said that keeping together a bond of trust was not easy, but absolutely essential.
“Every time we start our conversations with the drivers, we always remind ourselves as a premise ‘this is hard’,” he said.
“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 own aspirations.
“This is a foundational principle of the way we go racing at McLaren. We want to protect this 'let them race' concept. You need to be thorough, and you need to have integrity in approaching that.
“I'm very proud of the way Lando and Oscar have been part of the process so far because if we have been able to navigate through this, let's say difficult part of going racing, it's because we have Lando and Oscar on board.”
Keeping them “on board” with McLaren’s mindset of how it goes racing is about them both believing that the rules they are operating to are fair, are transparent and being enforced across both cars with total integrity.
If either of the drivers loses trust in the system – and feels that, to paraphrase George Orwell’s line, the other is being treated more fairly than they are – then that opens the door to the rules being ignored, team orders rejected and the whole system collapsing.
This is why Stella has talked of the discussions needing to take place now to properly dig into what happened - and for things not to just be given a light brush off.
“Our review needs to be very detailed, and very analytical,” he said. “It needs to take into account the point of view of our two drivers, and then we will form a common opinion.
“Based on this, we will see whether we can just confirm our initial interpretation or if there's something else that we should conclude.”
The primary focus of the talks will not likely be on understanding the dynamics of the Singapore incident, because the factors at play were clear for everyone to see.
Instead, what really needs drilling into is whether a line was crossed by Norris in breaching McLaren’s ‘no-contact’ Papaya rules.
From McLaren’s perspective, it felt in the race that Norris’s front wing tap on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull that triggered his slide was an extra factor that needed to be considered in in excusing the clash.
But even when this Verstappen element was explained to Piastri, that wasn’t viewed as a get out of jail free card.
As he remarked over team radio: “If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate that’s a pretty s**t job of avoiding.”
Whether his opinion changes when he finally gets to see it in full remains to be seen.
Voicing concerns
McLaren has not shied away from the clear challenges that come from having drivers fighting for a world championship and it isn't even afraid of dirty laundry being aired in public.
One of Stella’s abiding philosophies at McLaren has been for everyone there to open up if there are things they are unhappy about, rather than stew on them.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has likened this to “taking the air out of the balloon right away if we feel like anything's bubbling up”.
It’s why both Piastri and Norris are encouraged to speak up on team radio, rather than tow the party line and keep things to themselves.
Also why the drivers have not been afraid to tell Stella and Brown exactly what they feel behind closed doors to get everything off their chest.
The Race understands that the conversations between Piastri and McLaren’s management after the Italian GP were quite robust as he put forward his case about the rights and wrongs of what the team did at Monza.
Stella is hopeful that the conversations that will take place now before the United States Grand Prix can bring everyone back together to be “stronger and more united than before”.
But, with it clear that Piastri is heading to yet another review meeting where he is seeking answers over the foundations of fairness, there is an obvious danger of him feeling like he is a broken record that nobody is listening to.
This is why Stella conceded the talks coming up, and where McLaren goes from here, are critical.
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Our verdict on Piastri and Norris's Singapore GP clash
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“We need to be accurate because there's a lot at stake,” he admitted.
“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.
“So we will apply all the accuracy that is required in this case and all the conversations that are needed.”
