Piastri’s expectations ‘quite low’ as McLaren avoid ‘silly manipulation’ after Singapore clash
Former F1 driver Perry McCarthy believes Formula 1 and McLaren avoided looking "pretty silly" by not ordering a position swap after Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris made contact during the Singapore Grand Prix. The McLaren pair touched at Turn 3 when Norris dived inside after clipping the back of Max Verstappen's Red Bull, triggering a chain reaction that pushed Piastri wide.
No action — and no team orders
Piastri voiced anger on the radio, asking for Norris to hand the place back. The stewards elected to take no further action, and McLaren denied the swap request, promising to revisit the incident after the race. That decision, says McCarthy, was both expected and correct.
"What his real expectations were, of any action being taken for that, were probably quite low," McCarthy told RacingNews365. "But it doesn't stop him from trying to gain an advantage for himself in that situation."
"The FIA judged it to be totally fair. The team then judged it to be totally fair. Could you imagine manipulating a race in that way, where Singapore is so difficult to overtake anyway? Formula 1 itself, and the McLaren team, would have been looked at as being pretty silly."
Pressure, perspective, and the title fight
The flashpoint came two weeks after Piastri's troubled Azerbaijan weekend, but McCarthy rejected talk of a "wobble" for the championship leader. He stressed the intense pressure both McLaren drivers are managing at the front of the title battle.
"These boys are dealing with an awful lot of pressure… I wouldn't be disrespectful enough to use the word wobble. Oscar and Lando have both shown incredible skill and resilience," he said.
With the points spread between first and second at seven, McCarthy noted that every intra-team battle matters as Norris seeks to carve into Piastri's advantage over the shrinking run-in.
Context from Monza
The Singapore debate followed a team call at the Italian Grand Prix, where a slow pit stop dropped Norris behind Piastri as they ran second and third behind Verstappen — a scenario that did trigger a position swap. In Marina Bay, however, both the sporting and competitive context favoured letting the fight play out on track.
