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McLaren and Formula One would benefit from anything decisive during this championship battle involving Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri being decided through on-track action and without reference to team orders as the championship finale kicks off this weekend at COTA starting Friday.

Marina Bay race fallout leads to internal strain

With the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and stressful post-race analyses concluded, the Woking-based squad will be hoping for a reset. The British driver was almost certainly fully conscious about the historical parallels of his riposte to his aggrieved teammate during the previous race weekend. During an intense championship duel with the Australian, 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 Senna's great rivalries.

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

The remark appeared to paraphrase the Brazilian legend's “If you no longer go for a gap which is there you are no longer a true racer” justification he provided to the racing knight after he ploughed into the French champion in Japan back in 1990, ensuring he took the championship.

Parallel mindset yet distinct situations

Although the attitude is similar, the wording marks where parallels stop. Senna later admitted he had no intent of letting Prost to defeat him at turn one while Norris did try to make his pass cleanly in Singapore. In fact, his maneuver was legitimate which received no penalty even with the glancing blow he had with his McLaren teammate as he went through. That itself was a result of him clipping the Red Bull driven by Verstappen in front of him.

The Australian responded angrily and, significantly, instantly stated that Norris's position gain seemed unjust; the implication being their collision was verboten under McLaren’s rules for racing and Norris should be instructed to give back the position he gained. McLaren did not do so, but it was indicative that in any cases between them, each would quickly ask the squad to intervene on his behalf.

Squad management and impartiality under scrutiny

This comes naturally from McLaren's commendable approach to allow their racers compete against each other and strive to be as scrupulously fair. Aside from creating complex dilemmas when establishing rules about what defines fair or unfair – under these conditions, now includes misfortune, tactical calls and on-track occurrences such as in Singapore – there remains the issue of perception.

Of most import to the title race, six races left, Piastri leads Norris by 22 points, there is what each driver perceives as fair and when their perspectives might split with that of the McLaren pitwall. Which is when their friendly rapport between the two may – finally – become a little bit more the iconic rivalry.

“It’s going to come a point where a few points will matter,” commented Mercedes boss Toto Wolff post-race. “Then they’ll start to calculate and back-calculate and I guess aggression will increase a bit more. That’s when it starts to get interesting.”

Viewer desires and title consequences

For spectators, during this dual battle, increased excitement will probably be welcomed in the form of an on-track confrontation instead of a data-driven decision of circumstances. Especially since for F1 the alternative perception from these events isn't very inspiring.

To be fair, McLaren are making the correct decisions for their interests and it has paid off. They clinched their 10th constructors’ title in Singapore (though a great achievement diminished by the controversy from the Norris-Piastri moment) and in Andrea Stella as team principal they possess a moral and principled leader who genuinely wants to do the right thing.

Racing purity against team management

However, with racers competing for the title looking to the pitwall to decide matters is unedifying. Their contest ought to be determined through racing. Luck and destiny will play their part, but better to let them simply go at it and see how fortune falls, than the impression 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 examination will intensify and each time it happens it is in danger of potentially making a difference that could be critical. Already, following the team's decision their drivers swap places in Italy due to Norris experiencing a slow pit stop and Piastri believing he had been hard done by with the strategy call at Hungary, where Norris won, the spectre of a fear about bias also looms.

Team perspective and future challenges

No one wants to see a title constantly disputed over perceived that fairness attempts had not been balanced. Questioned whether he felt the team had acted correctly by both drivers, Piastri responded he believed they had, but noted it's a developing process.

“There’s been some difficult situations and we’ve spoken about various aspects,” he stated post-race. “But ultimately it’s a learning process for the entire squad.”

Six meetings remain. The team has minimal wriggle room left for last-minute adjustments, so it may be better to just stop analyzing and step back from the conflict.