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Lando Norris states that "every competitor on the starting lineup" would have made the maneuver that caused renewed tension between himself and his McLaren teammate the Australian during the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Briton collided with Piastri on the corner exit of the third corner at Marina Bay after contact with Max Verstappen's Red Bull caused him to slide.

The collision threatens to disrupt the well-managed team unity that the British team has managed to maintain between both competitors through thoughtful management.

Before the race, the British driver was behind his teammate by 25 points in the championship standings, and narrowed that gap by only a small amount after finishing third behind the Mercedes driver and Verstappen, with his teammate close behind in fourth position.

Driver Perspectives

The Briton maintained he had acted appropriately in passing his teammate.

"Anyone on the grid would have attempted what I did," he stated. "Should you fault me for taking a racing gap, you don't belong in F1.

"I was slightly too close to Verstappen, but that's racing. Nothing serious happened, I'm confident I would have ended up ahead of Piastri regardless because he had the dirty part of the track on the outer line.

"Naturally I need to analyze it and the last thing I want is contact with my teammate. I am the one who must avoid such situations. I would endanger my position just as much if similar things happened.

"I'll review it but the FIA obviously thought it was fine and the McLaren did, too."

The driver rejected he had been too forceful with Piastri. "I made contact with Max," he said, "so I wasn't forceful with my racing partner."

McLaren's Response

Piastri expressed unhappiness about the collision. He said over the in-car communication that the team's decision to do nothing about it was "unjust."

Post-event, he was circumspect, stating he needed to review the situation before making additional statements.

"The primary issue is both vehicles making contact," he commented. "That's never what we want, so I'll analyze it in greater detail."

The Australian has previously been the driver to suffer in no fewer than multiple debatable incidents this year.

During the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was the leading McLaren driver early in the race but Norris was allowed to use a alternative approach to overtake his teammate, a decision that competitors have questioned.

And in Italy, the Australian was instructed to let Norris back past for second place after the British driver was delayed by a slow pit stop. He expressed concern that he thought there had been an agreement that a delayed service was just normal competition that had to be accepted, but acquiesced regardless.

Internally, he was unhappy about that circumstance, and he and the squad held discussions to resolve it.

But questioned after Sunday's race whether he had any concerns that Norris might be getting favoritism, the Australian said: "None."

Did he believe the team had been fair throughout the championship?

"Ultimately, affirmative," Piastri stated. "Might situations have been better at specific moments? Yes, but ultimately it's a learning process with the whole squad and I'm extremely happy that the aims are very well meaning, if that is understandable."

Team Leadership

Team principal Andrea Stella said: "We will conduct detailed analyses, productive conversations and, like after Canada, we'll come back more resilient and more cohesive."

Stella stated that although the team had reviewed the incident in its immediate aftermath, "this contact is, in reality, a result of another racing situation that occurred between Lando and the Red Bull driver."

Stella added: "Piastri made some statements while he was in the car but that's the type of character that we expect from our drivers. They have to express their views, that's what we require of them.

"Our analysis needs to be extremely thorough, very analytical, it needs to take into account the perspective of our two drivers, and then we will form a shared understanding based on which we will determine whether we can simply validate our initial interpretation or there's something else that we should decide.

"Every time we start our discussions with the competitors, we always remind ourselves, as a premise: 'This is difficult'.

"Because this is the only matter in which, when you race together, in fact you can't have exactly the same interest for the two drivers, because they seek to achieve their personal goals. This is a foundational principle of the way we race at the team.

"We need to be precise, because there's a lot at risk. That's not just the valuable points, but it's additionally the trust of our drivers in the manner we function as a squad, and this is, perhaps, more fundamental than the points themselves."

McLaren's Success

The incident deflected attention from McLaren securing the team title for the second consecutive year.

It is McLaren's 10th constructors' title, placing them above Williams in the all-time list into second place after leaders the Italian team, who have won it on sixteen occasions since the championship's inception in the late fifties.

Their victory represents one of the earliest times a team has accomplished this. It matches Red Bull's feat in winning with multiple events remaining in last season, although that was a 22-race season compared with 24 this season.

The team's lead has diminished as the season enters its concluding phase. That is due in part to the nature of the three most recent circuits not favoring its strengths, and also because the team turned off the development program earlier, while their rivals still have updates coming to their vehicles.

This choice by the team was based on the reality that they were seeing reduced benefits in developing this vehicle, common when a design has such an edge at the start of a championship, and that they wanted to make certain they were ready for the following season.

Norris, however, is well aware of the scale of his squad's accomplishment, and the remarkable turnaround they have demonstrated under Stella and CEO their leader from just over two years ago, when they began the 2023 season near the back of the grid.

"Another title is a wonderful achievement," he commented. "Looking at where we were three years ago, we have surpassed every squad in terms of progress in a time when it is harder to do so with more restrictions and less wind tunnel time.

"At a time when it should be harder than before to excel, that's precisely what the team has accomplished and given us, clearly, the fastest vehicle on the starting lineup.

"It's consistently a pleasing aspect to mention. It always puts a smile on your face. But we've additionally excelled as a squad in terms of drivers, between Piastri and myself {pushing each other