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The British racing team along with Formula One would benefit from anything decisive in the championship battle involving Norris & Piastri being decided on the track rather than without resorting to team orders with the championship finale kicks off this weekend at Circuit of the Americas on Friday.

Marina Bay race fallout leads to internal strain

After the Marina Bay event’s doubtless extensive and tense post-race analyses concluded, the Woking-based squad will be hoping for a reset. Norris was almost certainly more than aware of the historical context regarding his retort to his aggrieved teammate at the last grand prix weekend. In a fiercely contested championship duel against Piastri, that Norris invoked a famous Senna well-known quotes was lost on no one but the incident that provoked his comment was of an entirely different nature from incidents characterizing the Brazilian’s iconic battles.

“Should you criticize me for simply attempting an inside move of a big gap then you don't belong in Formula One,” stated Norris of his opening-lap attempt to pass that led to their vehicles making contact.

His comment appeared to paraphrase Senna’s “Should you stop attempting for a gap that exists then you cease to be a racing driver” defence he provided to Sir Jackie Stewart following his collision with the French champion in Japan in 1990, ensuring he took the title.

Parallel mindset yet distinct situations

While the spirit is similar, the wording marks where parallels stop. The late champion confessed he had no intent to allow Prost beat him at turn one while Norris did try to make his pass cleanly in Singapore. Indeed, it was a perfectly valid effort which received no penalty even with the glancing blow he made against his team colleague as he went through. That itself was a result of him touching the car driven by Verstappen ahead of him.

Piastri reacted furiously and, significantly, instantly stated that Norris's position gain was “unfair”; suggesting that the two teammates clashing was verboten under McLaren’s rules for racing and Norris should be instructed to return the place he had made. McLaren did not do so, but it was indicative that in any cases of contention, both will promptly appeal to the team to step in in their favor.

Team dynamics and fairness under scrutiny

This comes naturally of McLaren’s laudable efforts to allow their racers compete one another and strive to maintain strict fairness. Quite apart from creating complex dilemmas when establishing rules about what defines fair or unfair – which, under these auspices, now covers bad luck, tactical calls and racing incidents such as in Singapore – there remains the issue regarding opinions.

Most crucially to the title race, with six meetings remaining, Piastri leads Norris by twenty-two points, each racer's view exists as fair and at what point their perspectives might split from the team's stance. That is when the amicable relationship among them could eventually – become a little bit more the iconic rivalry.

“It will reach to a situation where minor points count,” commented Mercedes team principal Wolff after Singapore. “Then they’ll start to calculate and re-calculations and I suppose aggression will increase further. That's when it begins to become thrilling.”

Viewer desires and title consequences

For spectators, during this dual battle, getting interesting will probably be welcomed as an on-track confrontation rather than a data-driven decision of circumstances. Especially since for F1 the alternative perception from all this isn't very inspiring.

To be fair, McLaren are making the correct decisions for themselves and it has paid off. They clinched their 10th constructors’ title in Singapore (though a great achievement diminished by the fuss prompted by the Norris-Piastri moment) and in Andrea Stella as squad leader they have an ethical and principled leader who truly aims to do the right thing.

Racing purity against team management

Yet having drivers competing for the title looking to the pitwall to decide matters is unedifying. Their competition should be decided through racing. Chance and fate will play their part, but better to let them just battle freely and observe outcomes naturally, rather than the sense that every disputed moment will be analyzed intensely by the team to ascertain whether they need to intervene and subsequently resolved later in private.

The scrutiny will intensify with every occurrence it risks potentially making a difference that could be critical. Already, following the team's decision 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 at Hungary, where Norris triumphed, the spectre of a fear about bias also looms.

Team perspective and future challenges

Nobody desires to witness a championship endlessly debated over perceived that fairness attempts had not been balanced. Questioned whether he felt the team had managed to do right by both drivers, Piastri responded he believed they had, but mentioned that it was an ever-evolving approach.

“We've had several difficult situations and we discussed a number of things,” he stated post-race. “However finally it's educational with the whole team.”

Six meetings remain. The team has minimal wriggle room left to do their cramming, thus perhaps wiser to just close the books and withdraw from the conflict.