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Lando Norris claims that "any driver on the grid" would have made the maneuver that caused fresh controversy between himself and his McLaren teammate the Australian during the recent race.

The Briton collided with his teammate on the corner exit of turn three at the Singapore circuit after a bump with the leading car caused him to slide.

The collision threatens to undermine the well-managed harmony that McLaren has managed to maintain between both competitors through strategic leadership.

Entering the event, the British driver was behind Piastri by a significant margin in the points table, and narrowed that gap by only three points after finishing third behind the Mercedes driver and the Red Bull star, with his teammate following in P4.

Driver Perspectives

The Briton maintained he had done nothing wrong in overtaking his teammate.

"Every driver on the starting lineup would have done what I did," he commented. "Should you fault me for taking a big opportunity, you don't belong in F1.

"My car was slightly too close to Verstappen, but that's competition. No major incident occurred, I'm certain I would have ended up ahead of Oscar regardless because he had the less favorable part of the track on the outside.

"Naturally I need to review it and the last thing I want is contact with my racing partner. I am the one who must avoid such situations. I would endanger my position just as much if similar things happened.

"I'll review it but the governing body obviously thought it was fine and the McLaren did, too."

The driver rejected he had been overly aggressive with his teammate. "I made contact with Max," he said, "so I wasn't aggressive with my teammate."

Team Dynamics

Piastri expressed unhappiness about the incident. He communicated over the team radio that the team's decision to do nothing about it was "not fair."

After the race, he was more measured, stating he needed to watch the incident before making additional statements.

"The main concern is two cars making contact," he commented. "It's never what we desire, so I'll analyze it in more depth."

Piastri has already been the competitor to suffer in no fewer than two controversial situations this season.

During the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was the leading McLaren driver initially but his teammate was allowed to use a alternative approach to beat his partner, a choice that rival teams have scrutinized.

During the Italian Grand Prix, the Australian was instructed to allow his teammate through for P2 after the Briton was held up by a slow pit stop. He expressed concern that he believed there had been an understanding that a delayed service was just part of racing that had to be accepted, but complied anyway.

Internally, he was not pleased about that circumstance, and he and the squad held discussions to resolve it.

But when asked after Sunday's race whether he had worries that his teammate might be getting favoritism, the Australian responded: "None."

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

"Ultimately, yes," Piastri stated. "Might situations have been improved at certain points? Certainly, but ultimately it's a learning process with the whole squad and I'm very satisfied that the intentions are positive, if that makes sense."

Management Perspective

Team principal Andrea Stella said: "We'll have thorough reviews, productive conversations and, like after Canada, we'll return stronger and even more united."

The team principal explained that although the squad had analyzed the collision in its direct consequence, "the collision is, in reality, a result of another racing situation that happened between Norris and Verstappen."

He continued: "Piastri made some comments while he was in the cockpit but that's the kind of attitude that we expect from our drivers. They have to make their position clear, that's what we ask of them.

"Our analysis needs to be extremely thorough, very analytical, it needs to consider the viewpoint of our both competitors, and then we will develop a common opinion upon which we will see whether we can just confirm our first assessment or there's additional factors that we should conclude.

"Whenever we begin our conversations with the competitors, we always remind ourselves, as a premise: 'This is difficult'.

"Since this is the single area in which, when you race together, actually you can't have identical objectives for the two drivers, because they want to pursue their individual aspirations. This is a foundational principle of the approach we take at McLaren.

"We need to be accurate, because there's much at risk. That's not just the championship points, but it's also the confidence of our drivers in the manner we function as a squad, and this is, perhaps, even more foundational than the championship standings."

McLaren's Success

The controversy drew focus from the British team securing the constructors' championship for the second year running.

It is the team's tenth team championship, moving them ahead of Williams in the all-time list into second place after record-holders Ferrari, who have won it 16 times since the championship's inception in the late fifties.

This achievement represents one of the earliest times a team has accomplished this. It equals their rival's achievement in winning with multiple events remaining in last season, although that was a 22-race season compared with 24 this year.

McLaren's advantage has diminished as the season enters its final stages. That is due in part to the nature of the three most recent circuits not favoring its capabilities, and also because McLaren ceased the upgrade process some time ago, while Mercedes and Red Bull still have new parts arriving to their vehicles.

That decision by McLaren was based on the fact that they were seeing reduced benefits in improving this car, typical when a design has such an edge at the beginning of a championship, and that they wanted to ensure they were well prepared for next year.

Norris, however, is fully conscious of the magnitude of his squad's accomplishment, and the impressive transformation they have demonstrated under Stella and CEO their leader from just over two years ago, when they began the previous championship near the back of the field.

"A second championship is a wonderful achievement," Norris said. "If you consider where we were three years ago, we have outperformed every squad in terms of development in a time when it is harder to do so with more restrictions and reduced testing.

"In an era when it should be harder than before to excel, that's exactly what the team has done and provided us, clearly, the best car on the grid.

"That's always a pleasing aspect to say. It always puts a smile on your face. But we've also performed very well as a squad in terms of drivers, between Oscar and myself {pushing each other