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The British driver claims that "any driver on the grid" would have attempted the move that sparked fresh controversy between Norris and his McLaren teammate the Australian during the recent race.

The Briton collided with Piastri on the corner exit of the third corner at the Singapore circuit after contact with Max Verstappen's Red Bull sent his car sideways.

This incident threatens to undermine the carefully maintained harmony that McLaren has managed to maintain between both competitors through strategic leadership.

Entering the event, the British driver was behind his teammate by 25 points in the points table, and reduced that deficit by only a small amount after taking the final podium spot behind the Mercedes driver and Verstappen, with his teammate close behind in fourth position.

Driver Perspectives

Norris insisted he had done nothing wrong in passing Piastri.

"Every driver on the grid would have attempted what I did," he commented. "Should you fault me for taking a racing gap, you don't belong in F1.

"I was slightly too close to Verstappen, but that's racing. No major incident occurred, I'm certain I would have finished in front of Oscar regardless because he had the less favorable part of the circuit on the outside.

"Naturally I need to review it and the worst scenario I want is contact with my racing partner. I am the one who can't afford any incidents. I would endanger my position just as much if that occurred.

"I will examine it but the FIA obviously thought it was acceptable and the team did, as well."

The driver rejected he had been too forceful with his teammate. "I touched Max," he explained, "so I wasn't forceful with my racing partner."

Team Dynamics

Piastri expressed displeasure about the collision. He communicated over the team radio that the team's decision to do nothing about it was "unjust."

After the race, he was more measured, saying he needed to watch the incident before commenting further.

"The main concern is both vehicles coming together," he noted. "That's never what we desire, so I'll analyze it in greater detail."

The Australian has already been the competitor to suffer in no fewer than multiple debatable incidents this year.

During the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was the team's frontrunner early in the race but Norris was allowed to use a alternative approach to beat his partner, a choice that competitors have questioned.

And in Italy, the Australian was ordered to let Norris back past for P2 after the Briton was delayed by a slow pit stop. He expressed concern that he believed there had been an agreement that a slow pit stop was just part of racing that had to be accepted, but acquiesced regardless.

Behind the scenes, he was not pleased about that circumstance, and he and the squad held discussions to address the matter.

But when asked after Sunday's race whether he had any concerns that his teammate might be receiving preferential treatment, the Australian said: "No."

Did he believe the squad had been equitable throughout the championship?

"In the end, yes," Piastri stated. "Could things have been improved at certain points? Certainly, but ultimately it's a developmental journey with the entire team and I'm extremely satisfied that the aims are positive, if that makes sense."

Team Leadership

Team principal Andrea Stella commented: "We'll have detailed analyses, productive conversations and, like after Canada, we'll come back more resilient and even more united."

The team principal explained that although the squad had reviewed the collision in its immediate aftermath, "this contact is, in reality, a consequence of another racing situation that occurred between Lando and the Red Bull driver."

He continued: "Piastri made some statements while he was in the car but that's the type of character that we expect from our drivers. They have to make their position clear, that's what we require of them.

"Our analysis needs to be very detailed, highly methodical, it needs to consider the viewpoint of our two drivers, and then we will form a shared understanding upon which we will see whether we can simply validate our initial interpretation or there's something else that we should conclude.

"Whenever we begin our conversations with the drivers, we always remind ourselves, as a foundation: 'This is challenging'.

"Since this is the single area in which, when you compete as teammates, actually you can't have identical objectives for the both competitors, because they seek to achieve their personal goals. This is a foundational principle of the approach we take at McLaren.

"We need to be accurate, because there's much at stake. That's not only the valuable points, but it's also the confidence of our drivers in the way we operate as a team, and this is, perhaps, more fundamental than the championship standings."

Championship Achievement

The incident deflected attention from the British team winning the team title for the second year running.

It is McLaren's tenth team championship, placing them ahead of Williams in the all-time list into runner-up position after record-holders Ferrari, who have claimed it on sixteen occasions since the competition began in the late fifties.

Their victory represents one of the quickest instances a squad has accomplished this. It equals their rival's achievement in winning with multiple events remaining in last season, although that was a shorter championship compared with 24 this year.

McLaren's advantage has diminished as the championship heads into its final stages. That is partly because to the nature of the three most recent circuits not suiting its capabilities, and partly because McLaren turned off the development program some time ago, while Mercedes and Red Bull still have new parts coming to their cars.

That decision by McLaren was rooted in the fact that they were experiencing reduced benefits in developing this vehicle, common when a design has such an advantage at the start of a season, and that they wanted to ensure they were ready for next year.

The British driver, though, is fully conscious of the magnitude of his team's achievement, and the impressive transformation they have shown under their team principal and CEO their leader from just over two years ago, when they started the 2023 season near the rear of the grid.

"Another title is a great thing," he commented. "If you consider where we were previously, we have surpassed every squad in terms of development in a period when it is more challenging to achieve with more restrictions and less wind tunnel time.

"At a time when it should be harder than ever to dominate, that's exactly what the team has accomplished and provided us, clearly, the fastest vehicle on the starting lineup.

"That's always a very nice thing to say. It always puts a smile on your expression. But we've additionally performed very well as a team in terms of drivers, between Oscar and myself {pushing each other