And so the gloves are off. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri banged wheels on the first lap of the Singapore Grand Prix won by the smooth-running George Russell.
Hands are at each other’s throat. The friction is an inevitability as old as sport itself and proved that McLaren’s valiant attempts to contain enmity between their two world championship contenders could never be contained.
Their bosses tried hard to keep the peace, and established ‘Papaya Rules’, the regulations by which they were meant to duel fairly. Not crashing into each other was No 1 on the list, but putting the team ahead of the man was its overarching credo.
That observance was called into question – for now or for all time – at Turn Three under Marina Bay Street Circuit’s lightbulbs.
Norris, who made a bold start from fifth, was vying for higher rankings. He tagged the back of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, just a glance, and it caused him to be diverted into Piastri. Norris was running on the inside of the left-hander at the time and, if he made a mistake, which he did, it was a small one as he sought to exploit an opening. The stewards concurred – no fingers pointed.
The officials deliberately and expressly show more leniency on the first lap than on any other. They want to encourage competition, and this was a ‘racing incident’ by any rational appreciation. Piastri had a right to feel hard done by, though. But that is tough cheese, mate. As it should be, too. McLaren ought not to over-engineer friendship, which can only be faux and short-lived – the full radio exchanges to follow explain this contention.
George Russell is embraced by girlfriend Carmen Mundt after winning in Singapore
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri banged wheels on the first lap of the grand prix
In the end, the contretemps gifted Norris his third place in an insipid race, behind Verstappen but, crucially, one ahead of Piastri. This trimmed Piastri’s championship lead to 22 points, down from 25. The irrepressible Verstappen is 63 back, down from 69. There are 174 points on offer across the six remaining rounds.
The lid came off the kettle in Piastri’s cockpit like this.
‘So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?’ protested the Australian. ‘What’s going on there?’
The response came from his race engineer, Tom Stallard: ‘We’re looking at it. Let me get back to you.’
Then the stewards sat in judgment.
Stallard came on with their verdict: ‘No further action. As a team we can see that Lando had to avoid Verstappen so we won’t take any action during the race. We can review further afterwards.’
Piastri countered: ‘Mate, that is not fair. I’m sorry, that is not fair.’
Stallard, again: ‘Oscar we will have the opportunity to review together afterwards. Focus on this race, mate. We can still get a good result here.’
Norris (left) ended up in third and trimmed his team-mate’s championship lead to 22 points, while Mercedes’ Russell cruised to victory
Piastri was fuming and ended up being stuck in fourth place on an unhappy evening
Piastri: ‘Yeah, but if he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate then that is a pretty s*** job of avoiding.’
Further misery for Piastri struck after 26 laps when his rear-left tyre was slow going on in his only stop. He was glued in his pit box for 5.2sec. He fell further behind Norris, marooned in fourth place.
Norris, driving a good race, his dander up, climbed all over the back of Verstappen as the action reached its conclusion.
The two men have fallen out of friendship in recent months and remarks Norris made over the weekend about Verstappen being a fortunate recipient of perfect-for-F1 genes – racing dad Jos and karting star Sophie Kumpen – went down like cyanide in the Dutchman’s camp.
Norris harried hard but was unable to pass the immovable Verstappen, though right on his exhaust lap after lap. A good night for Norris, though, and, within reason, for Verstappen.
But back to the intra-McLaren rivalry and the history that went into it. Piastri was furious that strategy calls favoured Norris in Hungary, handing the Englishman victory. Piastri did not say anything publicly about any possible jiggery-pokery, but angst was written all over his face that day.
He had even more reason to feel aggrieved in Monza last month, when team principal Andrea Stella ordered his drivers to swap places after Norris was delayed in a pit stop. He had every reason to be angry then.
Stella, a clever and reasonable man and analytical, tried to smooth over the creases, just as he did in Canada when the Norris and Piastri last collided, in June.
The ‘team first, man second’ philosophy delivered a consecutive world constructors’ title yesterday. So who can say McLaren have miscalculated? It’s just that the limits of fraternity can only be stretched so far. As we saw with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Russell backed up his effort to take pole and won from the front in a dull race
Ironically, McLaren have just appointed a new director of communications, Luca Colajanni, of Milano, a one-time apparatchik of Ferrari’s Pravda dating back to ‘Spygate’ in 2007, when the Scuderia and McLaren were warring over technical information nicked from Maranello. McLaren were fined $100m dollars for the crime.
Colajanni starts for the Woking-based world champions on Wednesday with responsibility, among other aspects, to present an image of harmony between their drivers. To borrow from Airplane!, he’s picked the wrong week to quit his old job (at Pirelli).
In other subjects, running a race of his own, serene and victorious for Mercedes, Russell is due special praise for prospering despite being hit by a virus a fortnight ago in Azerbaijan, where he nonetheless finished second in a statement of stainless steel.
The hardest of his weekend’s work was accomplished on Saturday with pole position. Eleven of 16 winners in Singapore have prevailed from the front. It was a processional grand prix, really, the Englishman happily away from the sparks flying behind him.
