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The British racing team along with F1 could do with anything decisive during this title fight involving Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri being decided on the track rather than without reference to team orders with the title run-in kicks off this weekend at COTA starting Friday.

Marina Bay race fallout leads to team tensions

With the Marina Bay event’s doubtless extensive and tense post-race analyses concluded, McLaren will be hoping for a reset. Norris was almost certainly fully conscious of the historical context of his riposte to his aggrieved teammate at the last grand prix weekend. In a fiercely contested title fight with the Australian, his reference to a famous Senna well-known quotes did not go unnoticed yet the occurrence which triggered his statement differed completely from incidents characterizing Senna's iconic battles.

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

His comment appeared to paraphrase Senna’s “If you no longer go an available gap which is there you are no longer a racing driver” defence he provided to the racing knight after he ploughed into the French champion in Japan in 1990, securing him the championship.

Similar spirit yet distinct situations

Although the attitude remains comparable, the phrasing marks where parallels stop. Senna later admitted he never intended to allow Prost to defeat him at turn one while Norris did try to execute a clean overtake at the Marina Bay circuit. Indeed, his maneuver was legitimate which received no penalty despite the minor contact he had with his team colleague during the pass. This incident stemmed from him clipping the Red Bull driven by Verstappen in front of him.

Piastri reacted furiously and, notably, instantly stated that Norris gaining the place seemed unjust; the implication being the two teammates clashing was verboten by team protocols of engagement and Norris should be instructed to return the place he had made. McLaren did not do so, but it was indicative that during disputes of contention, each would quickly ask to the team to intervene in their favor.

Squad management and impartiality under scrutiny

This is part and parcel from McLaren's commendable approach to let their drivers race 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 covers misfortune, strategy and on-track occurrences such as in Singapore – there remains the issue of perception.

Most crucially for the championship, with six meetings remaining, Piastri is ahead of Norris by 22 points, each racer's view exists on fairness and at what point their opinion may diverge with that of the McLaren pitwall. Which is when their friendly rapport between the two may – finally – become a little bit more the iconic rivalry.

“It will reach a point where a few points will matter,” said Mercedes boss Wolff after Singapore. “Then they’ll start to calculate and re-calculations and I guess aggression will increase a bit more. That's when it begins to get interesting.”

Audience expectations and championship implications

For the audience, during this dual battle, increased excitement will likely be appreciated in the form of a track duel instead of a spreadsheet-based arbitration regarding incidents. Not least because in Formula One the other impression from all this is not particularly rousing.

Honestly speaking, McLaren is taking appropriate choices for their interests and it has paid off. They clinched their tenth team championship at Marina Bay (albeit a brilliant success diminished by the controversy from their drivers' clash) and with Stella as squad leader they possess a moral and principled leader who genuinely wants to act correctly.

Racing purity against team management

However, with racers in a championship fight looking to the pitwall for resolutions is unedifying. Their contest 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 each contentious incident will be analyzed intensely by the squad to determine if intervention is needed and then cleared up later in private.

The scrutiny will increase and each time it happens it is in danger of possibly affecting outcomes which might prove decisive. Already, following the team's decision for position swaps in Italy due to Norris experiencing a delayed stop and Piastri believing he had been hard done by with the strategy call at Hungary, where Norris triumphed, the shadow of concern about bias also looms.

Team perspective and upcoming tests

No one wants to witness a championship endlessly debated because it may be considered that the efforts to be fair had not been balanced. When asked if he felt the team had managed to do right by both drivers, Piastri responded that they did, but mentioned it's a developing process.

“There’s been some challenging moments and we’ve spoken about a number of things,” he stated post-race. “However finally it's educational for the entire squad.”

Six meetings remain. The team has minimal wriggle room left to do their cramming, thus perhaps wiser to just stop analyzing and withdraw from the conflict.