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The British racing team and Formula One could do with anything decisive in the title fight between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri being decided through on-track action rather than without reference to team orders with the title run-in begins this weekend at COTA on Friday.

Marina Bay race aftermath leads to team tensions

After the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and stressful post-race analyses concluded, the Woking-based squad will be hoping for a reset. Norris was almost certainly more than aware of the historical context of his riposte toward his upset colleague at the last grand prix weekend. In a fiercely contested championship duel against Piastri, his reference to one of Ayrton Senna’s well-known quotes was lost on no one but the incident that provoked his comment was of an entirely different nature to those that defined the Brazilian’s iconic battles.

“If you fault me for just going an inside move through an opening then you should not be in Formula One,” stated Norris of his opening-lap attempt to overtake that led to the cars colliding.

His comment seemed to echo the Brazilian legend's “If you no longer go for a gap that exists you are no longer a true racer” defence he gave to the racing knight after he ploughed into Alain Prost at Suzuka in 1990, securing him the title.

Similar spirit but different circumstances

Although the attitude is similar, the phrasing marks where parallels stop. The late champion confessed he had no intent to allow Prost beat him through the first corner while Norris did try to execute a clean overtake at the Marina Bay circuit. Indeed, it was a perfectly valid effort which received no penalty despite the minor contact he made against his team colleague during the pass. That itself stemmed from him touching the car driven by Verstappen ahead of him.

The Australian responded angrily and, significantly, immediately declared that Norris's position gain seemed unjust; suggesting that their collision was forbidden by team protocols for racing and Norris ought to be told to return the position he gained. McLaren did not do so, but it was indicative that in any cases of contention, each would quickly ask to the team to intervene on his behalf.

Squad management and impartiality being examined

This is part and parcel of McLaren’s laudable efforts to allow their racers compete against each other and strive to be as scrupulously fair. Quite apart from creating complex dilemmas when establishing rules over what constitutes just or unjust – which, under these auspices, now includes misfortune, strategy and on-track occurrences such as in Singapore – there is the question of perception.

Most crucially for the championship, six races left, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points, there is what each driver perceives as fair and when their perspectives might split with that of the McLaren pitwall. That is when their friendly rapport between the two could eventually – turn somewhat into Senna-Prost.

“It’s going to come a point where minor points count,” commented Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff post-race. “Then they’ll start to calculate and re-calculations and I suppose aggression will increase a bit more. That's when it begins to get interesting.”

Viewer desires and title consequences

For the audience, during this dual battle, increased excitement will likely be appreciated as an on-track confrontation rather than a data-driven decision regarding incidents. Not least because in Formula One the other impression from all this isn't very inspiring.

To be fair, McLaren are making the correct decisions for their interests with successful results. They secured their 10th constructors’ title in Singapore (albeit a brilliant success overshadowed by the fuss prompted by their drivers' clash) and with Stella as squad leader they possess a moral and upright commander who genuinely wants to do the right thing.

Sporting integrity against squad control

Yet having drivers competing for the title looking to the pitwall for resolutions is unedifying. Their contest ought to be determined on track. Luck and destiny will have roles, but better to let them just battle freely and see how fortune falls, than the impression that each contentious incident will be pored over by the squad to ascertain whether intervention is needed and subsequently resolved 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. Already, following the team's decision for position swaps in Italy due to Norris experiencing a slow pit stop and Piastri believing he was treated unfairly regarding tactics in Budapest, where Norris won, the shadow of concern about bias also looms.

Team perspective and upcoming tests

No one wants to witness a championship constantly disputed because it may be considered that the efforts to be fair were unequal. Questioned whether he believed the squad had acted correctly by both drivers, Piastri said he believed they had, but noted that it was an ever-evolving approach.

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

Six races stay. The team has minimal wriggle room left to do their cramming, so it may be better to just stop analyzing and step back from the conflict.