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The British racing team and Formula One could do with any conclusive outcome during this title fight between Norris and Oscar Piastri getting resolved through on-track action and without reference to the pit wall with the championship finale kicks off this weekend at COTA on Friday.

Singapore Grand Prix fallout prompts team tensions

With the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and tense debriefs dealt with, the Woking-based squad will be hoping for a fresh start. Norris was almost certainly fully conscious about the historical parallels regarding his retort toward his upset colleague at the last race weekend. In a fiercely contested championship duel against Piastri, that Norris invoked a famous Senna well-known quotes did not go unnoticed but the incident which triggered his statement differed completely from incidents characterizing the Brazilian’s iconic battles.

“Should you criticize me for just going on the inside through an opening then you should not be in F1,” Norris said regarding his first-lap move to overtake that led to the cars colliding.

The remark seemed to echo the Brazilian legend's “Should you stop attempting for a gap that exists then you cease to be a true racer” defence he provided to Sir Jackie Stewart after he ploughed into the French champion in Japan in 1990, ensuring he took the championship.

Similar spirit yet distinct situations

Although the attitude remains comparable, the wording marks where parallels stop. The late champion confessed he had no intent of letting Prost beat him at turn one whereas Norris did try to make his pass cleanly in Singapore. Indeed, his maneuver was legitimate that went unpenalised despite the minor contact he made against his team colleague as he went through. That itself was a result of him touching the Red Bull driven by Verstappen in front 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 for racing and Norris ought to be told to give back the place he had made. The team refused, yet it demonstrated that in any cases of contention, both will promptly appeal the squad to intervene in their favor.

Squad management and fairness being examined

This is part and parcel of McLaren’s laudable efforts to let their drivers race one another and strive to be as scrupulously fair. Quite apart from creating complex dilemmas when establishing rules about what defines fair or unfair – which, under these auspices, now covers bad luck, strategy and on-track occurrences like in Marina Bay – there remains the issue regarding opinions.

Most crucially to the title race, six races left, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points, each racer's view exists on fairness and at what point their perspectives might split with that of the McLaren pitwall. Which is when their friendly rapport among them may – finally – turn somewhat into Senna-Prost.

“It will reach to a situation where a few points will matter,” said Mercedes boss Wolff post-race. “Then they’ll start to calculate and re-calculations and I suppose the elbows are going to come out 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 probably be welcomed as an on-track confrontation instead of a data-driven decision regarding incidents. Not least because in Formula One the other impression from these events isn't very inspiring.

Honestly speaking, McLaren are making appropriate choices for their interests with successful results. They clinched their 10th constructors’ title at Marina Bay (albeit a brilliant success overshadowed by the fuss prompted by the Norris-Piastri moment) and in Andrea Stella as team principal they have an ethical and principled leader who genuinely wants to act correctly.

Racing purity versus squad control

However, with racers competing for the title appealing to the team for resolutions appears unsightly. Their competition should be decided on track. Luck and destiny will play their part, but better to let them simply go at it and see how fortune falls, rather than the sense that each contentious incident will be pored over by the team to determine if they need to intervene and subsequently resolved later in private.

The scrutiny will intensify and each time it happens it is in danger of potentially making a difference that could be critical. Already, after the team made for position swaps in Italy due to Norris experiencing a slow pit stop and Piastri feeling he was treated unfairly regarding tactics at Hungary, where Norris won, the shadow of concern about bias also looms.

Squad viewpoint and future challenges

No one wants to see a title endlessly debated over perceived that fairness attempts had not been balanced. When asked if he believed the squad had acted correctly toward both racers, Piastri responded that they did, but noted that it was an ever-evolving approach.

“We've had several difficult situations and we’ve spoken about a number of things,” he said post-race. “But ultimately it’s a learning process with the whole team.”

Six races stay. The team has minimal room for error for last-minute adjustments, thus perhaps wiser now to simply stop analyzing and step back from the conflict.