‘Not an egg-and-spoon race’ - McLaren interference prompts questions

Question marks have been raised over McLaren’s apparent interference in the F1 title fight.

It comes after Lando Norris revealed he will face “repercussions until the end of the season” for causing the first-lap contact with McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The incident enraged Piastri but McLaren took no action at the time as Norris finished third, directly ahead of his teammate, to reduce the Australian’s championship lead down to 22 points with six races remaining.

McLaren held Norris accountable for the collision but it is not known what the “repercussions” are, or how they will be implemented.

Speaking ahead of the United States Grand Prix, Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok questioned whether McLaren’s action is necessary.

“I wasn’t in Singapore, I was at home, I watched it happen and I thought ‘you know, good on you Lando, you’ve had a go, you are showing a bit of aggression’,” Chandhok explained.

“That’s what you need to do when you’ve got a points deficit and you are coming back at your rival. I enjoyed Singapore, I thought it was absolutely fine. It was all fine.

“Now that the constructors’ title is sealed, I want to see them being a bit more selfish. This is a life-defining thing they are fighting for, this is not an egg and spoon race at the local pre-school.

“This is a world championship and they might have only one opportunity. Talk to Damon Hill, talk to Jenson Button, talk to Jacques Villeneuve. This is something that matters for the rest of their lives.” 

Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft believes McLaren’s stance is “counter-intuitive”.

“Where I think this is a bit counter-intuitive, is that all season long McLaren have stressed, and have been correct when they’ve stressed this, that the drivers are free to race each other and we’re not going to interfere as long as they respect each other,” he said.

“With one quarter of the season to go, are McLaren now interfering?”

McLaren quizzed on ‘repercussions’ for Norris

McLaren boss Andrea Stella was asked about the situation in an interview with the official F1 website in Austin.

“The repercussions or consequences, they are part of our framework,” the Italian explained.

“This is something that both drivers were keen to have in the racing framework. For me, it was part of the review of leading the review, to discuss this without drivers. They’ve been accepted and we are now ready to focus on maximising the performance of the car and find again our winning ways.

“We had a situation in which there was contact between our cars, so this required to be reviewed under the racing framework that we use to go racing together as a team, with Lando and Oscar.

“It is a framework that Lando, Oscar and the team have put together and is ultimately my responsibility and Zak’s responsibility to make sure it is applied consistently during the season.

“We reviewed the case, we identified that Lando was responsible for the contact because he was a little long in corner 3, touched Verstappen and then he oversteered onto Oscar.

“Obviously there was no malice in this move but both drivers accepted the review and we now head into the rest of the season like after Canada, even more united and stronger as a team."