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McLaren and Formula One could do with anything decisive in the championship battle involving Norris & Oscar Piastri being decided on the track rather than without reference to team orders with the championship finale kicks off this weekend at Circuit of the Americas on Friday.

Marina Bay race aftermath prompts team tensions

After the Marina Bay event’s undoubtedly thorough and tense post-race analyses concluded, McLaren will be hoping for a fresh start. The British driver was likely fully conscious of the historical context regarding his retort toward his upset colleague at the last race weekend. In a fiercely contested championship duel with the Australian, that Norris invoked a famous Senna well-known quotes was lost on no one but the incident which triggered his statement was of an entirely different nature to those that defined Senna's great rivalries.

“If you fault me for simply attempting an inside move of a big gap then you don't belong in Formula One,” Norris said of his opening-lap attempt to overtake which resulted in the cars colliding.

The remark appeared to paraphrase Senna’s “Should you stop attempting an available gap that exists then you cease to be a racing driver” defence he provided to the racing knight following his collision with the French champion in Japan back in 1990, securing him the championship.

Parallel mindset yet distinct situations

While the spirit is similar, the wording marks where parallels stop. Senna later admitted he never intended to allow Prost to defeat him through the first corner while Norris did try to make his pass cleanly in Singapore. Indeed, his maneuver was legitimate that went unpenalised even with the glancing blow he had with his team colleague as he went through. This incident stemmed from him clipping the car of Max Verstappen ahead of him.

The Australian responded angrily and, significantly, instantly stated that Norris's position gain seemed unjust; suggesting that their collision was forbidden under McLaren’s rules for racing and Norris should be instructed to give back the place he had made. The team refused, yet it demonstrated that during disputes between them, both will promptly appeal the squad to step in on his behalf.

Squad management and impartiality being examined

This is part and parcel from McLaren's commendable approach to allow their racers compete against each other and strive to maintain strict fairness. Quite apart from creating complex dilemmas when establishing rules over what constitutes just or unjust – which, under these auspices, now covers bad luck, strategy and on-track occurrences such as in Singapore – there remains the issue of perception.

Most crucially for the championship, six races left, Piastri is ahead of Norris by 22 points, there is what each driver perceives on fairness and at what point their opinion may diverge from the team's stance. Which is when their friendly rapport among them could eventually – become a little bit more Senna-Prost.

“It will reach a point where a few points will matter,” commented Mercedes team principal Wolff after Singapore. “Then calculations will begin and back-calculate and I suppose the elbows are going to come out further. That’s when it starts to become thrilling.”

Viewer desires and championship implications

For spectators, in what is a two-horse race, getting interesting will likely be appreciated as a track duel instead of a spreadsheet-based arbitration regarding incidents. Especially since for F1 the alternative perception from all this is not particularly rousing.

To be fair, McLaren is taking the correct decisions for their interests and it has paid off. They secured their tenth team championship in Singapore (albeit a brilliant success diminished by the controversy from their drivers' clash) and with Stella as team principal they have an ethical and principled leader who genuinely wants to act correctly.

Racing purity against team management

Yet having drivers in a championship fight looking to the pitwall to decide matters appears unsightly. Their competition should be decided through racing. Chance and fate will play their part, yet preferable to allow 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 intervention is needed and subsequently resolved later in private.

The examination will intensify and each time it happens it risks possibly affecting outcomes which might prove decisive. Already, after the team made their drivers swap places at Monza due to Norris experiencing a delayed stop and Piastri feeling he was treated unfairly with the strategy call at Hungary, where Norris won, the shadow of concern about bias also looms.

Squad viewpoint and upcoming tests

No one wants to witness a championship endlessly debated because it may be considered that fairness attempts were unequal. Questioned whether he felt the team had acted correctly toward both racers, Piastri responded that they did, but mentioned it's a developing process.

“There’s been some challenging moments and we discussed a number of things,” he said after Singapore. “However finally it's educational for the entire squad.”

Six meetings remain. The team has minimal room for error to do their cramming, thus perhaps wiser now to simply close the books and step back from the fray.