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The British racing team and Formula One could do with anything decisive in the championship battle involving Norris and Piastri being decided on the track rather than without resorting to the pit wall with the title run-in kicks off this weekend at Circuit of the Americas starting Friday.

Marina Bay race fallout prompts team tensions

After the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and tense debriefs dealt with, the Woking-based squad is aiming for a fresh start. The British driver was almost certainly fully conscious about the historical parallels regarding his retort to his aggrieved teammate during the previous grand prix weekend. In a fiercely contested title fight against Piastri, that Norris invoked one of Ayrton Senna’s well-known quotes was lost on no one but the incident which triggered his statement was of an entirely different nature from incidents characterizing the Brazilian’s iconic battles.

“If you fault me for just going on the inside through an opening then you don't belong in F1,” Norris said of his opening-lap attempt to pass which resulted in the cars colliding.

His comment seemed to echo the Brazilian legend's “If you no longer go for a gap which is there you are no longer a racing driver” defence he provided to Sir Jackie Stewart after he ploughed into Alain Prost at Suzuka in 1990, securing him the championship.

Parallel mindset but different circumstances

While the spirit remains comparable, the phrasing marks where parallels stop. Senna later admitted he had no intent to allow Prost beat him at turn one while Norris did try to execute a clean overtake at the Marina Bay circuit. In fact, his maneuver was legitimate that went unpenalised despite the minor contact he had with his McLaren teammate during the pass. That itself was a result of him touching the car of Max Verstappen ahead of him.

The Australian responded angrily and, notably, immediately declared that Norris's position gain was “unfair”; the implication being the two teammates clashing was forbidden under McLaren’s rules of engagement and Norris should be instructed to return the position he gained. McLaren did not do so, yet it demonstrated that in any cases of contention, each would quickly ask the squad to intervene on his behalf.

Team dynamics and impartiality under scrutiny

This comes naturally of McLaren’s laudable efforts to allow their racers compete against each other and strive to maintain strict fairness. Quite apart from tying some torturous knots in setting precedents about what defines fair or unfair – which, under these auspices, now covers bad luck, tactical calls and on-track occurrences such as in Singapore – there is the question of perception.

Of most import to the title race, with six meetings remaining, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points, there is what each driver perceives on fairness and when their perspectives might split from the team's stance. Which is when their friendly rapport among them could eventually – become a little bit more Senna-Prost.

“It’s going to come to a situation where minor points count,” said Mercedes team principal Wolff post-race. “Then calculations will begin and re-calculations and I guess aggression will increase a bit more. That’s when it starts to get interesting.”

Audience expectations and championship implications

For the audience, in what is a two-horse race, increased excitement will likely be appreciated as an on-track confrontation rather than a spreadsheet-based arbitration regarding incidents. Not least because in Formula One the alternative perception from all this is not particularly rousing.

To be fair, McLaren are making the correct decisions for themselves with successful results. They secured their tenth team championship at Marina Bay (albeit a brilliant success diminished by the fuss prompted by the Norris-Piastri moment) and in Andrea Stella as squad leader they have an ethical and upright commander who truly aims to act correctly.

Racing purity against team management

However, with racers in a championship fight appealing to the team to decide matters is unedifying. Their contest should be decided through racing. Luck and destiny will play their part, but better to let them just battle freely and observe outcomes naturally, than the impression that each contentious incident will be pored over by the team to ascertain whether they need to intervene and subsequently resolved afterwards behind closed doors.

The scrutiny will intensify with every occurrence it is in danger of potentially making a difference which might prove decisive. Already, after the team made their drivers swap places in Italy because Norris had endured a slow pit stop and Piastri believing he was treated unfairly with the strategy call in Budapest, where Norris triumphed, the shadow of concern of favouritism also looms.

Team perspective and future challenges

Nobody desires to witness a championship constantly disputed because it may be considered that the efforts to be fair had not been balanced. Questioned whether he believed the squad had managed to do right toward both racers, Piastri responded that they did, but noted that it was an ever-evolving approach.

“There’s been some challenging moments and we discussed a number of things,” he stated after Singapore. “However finally it’s a learning process with the whole team.”

Six races stay. McLaren have little room for error to do their cramming, thus perhaps wiser to just stop analyzing and step back from the fray.