{"id":37546,"date":"2025-10-07T03:09:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=37546"},"modified":"2025-10-08T05:19:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:19:00","slug":"mclaren-could-lose-trust-of-our-drivers-after-singapore-stella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/10\/07\/mclaren-could-lose-trust-of-our-drivers-after-singapore-stella\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren could lose “trust of our drivers” after Singapore – Stella"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella<\/a> saw his personnel claim a second consecutive World Constructors Championship in Singapore. The Woking team claimed a title that was never truly in doubt – dominating the field with a MCL39 that’s supremacy has only been contested in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Of course, this was only a secondary headline after last weekend. The main talking point after the chequered flag in Marina Bay was the contact between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n

In an effort to recover from a poor Saturday, Norris was aggressive on the first lap. The British driver made contact with both Max Verstappen<\/a> and teammate Piastri into Turn 3 – a moment which has immediate consequences.<\/p>\n

In terms of the race result, Norris finished the race in 3rd and avoided any major damage. What did see more visible damage after Singapore was the internal dynamic at McLaren, as Piastri expressed clear frustration with the incident.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Lando Norris of Great Britain with Zak Brown and Andrea Stella in Singapore. (Photo by Steven Tee\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McLaren the victims of their own design<\/h2>\n

The contact between the McLaren duo was not necessarily anything spectacular in isolation. Both drivers continued their race after an incident which, whilst very close to being something far greater, did not end either of their races.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is context to this moment between the papaya pairing. McLaren set a rather clear precedent in Monza about ‘fairness’ when they ordered Piastri<\/a> to let Norris<\/a> overtake after the British driver’s slow pit-stop.<\/p>\n

Considering these team orders from last month, it is hardly surprising that Piastri expected a response after Norris’ forceful move. After all, the Australian was made to let his teammate pass despite not committing an error.<\/p>\n

When McLaren decided no intervention was necessary, the 24-year-old’s dissatisfaction was cemented.<\/p>\n

Speaking post-race, team principal Andrea Stella spoke candidly<\/a> about the delicate situation at Woking:<\/p>\n

“The review needs to be very detailed, very analytical. And it needs to take into account the point of view of our two drivers.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We will form a common opinion and we will see whether it confirms our initial interpretation – or if there is something else that we should compute. We need to be accurate, because there is a lot at stake.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Not only the championship points, but the trust of our drivers and the way we operate as a team. When you are racing as a team, you cannot have exactly the same interests for the two drivers – because they want to pursue their aspirations.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We want to protect this \u2018let them race\u2019 concept. And we know as soon as you adopt this concept you face difficulties.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on October 05, 2025 in Singapore. (Photo by Clive Mason\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The limitations of ‘papaya rules’<\/h4>\n

Ultimately, the narrative coming out of Singapore is entirely of McLaren’s own making. For all the discussion about ‘papaya rules’ in 2025, this code name effectively means one thing – don’t crash into your teammate.<\/p>\n

This should have been the extent of McLaren’s interventions this year – rather than the micro-managing they have pursued throughout the season.<\/p>\n

An idea often parroted in the media is that the ‘gloves will be off’ when the British team win the constructors Championship. However, considering that McLaren’s title victory has been inevitable<\/a> since the beginning of the year, Piastri and Norris should have been allowed more freedom since the beginning.<\/p>\n

The fallout from last weekend’s Singapore is not necessarily a surprise. In any Championship battle between teammates, the relationship between the drivers will inevitably suffer.<\/p>\n

McLaren should have recognised this in the early months of 2025, and adopted a more “hands-off” approach. By trying to meddle too often, they have created precedents and standards that were never sustainable.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, it is clear that Norris and Piastri will not accommodate any unreasonable requests. This is something Andrea Stella and Zak Brown<\/a> should accept. Any further interventions between their drivers would likely be unnecessary and ultimately counter-productive.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Sam Bloxham\/LAT Images (McLaren media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella saw his personnel claim a second consecutive World Constructors Championship in Singapore. The Woking team claimed a title that was never truly in doubt – dominating the field with a MCL39 that’s supremacy has only been contested in recent weeks. Of course, this was only a secondary headline after last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":37549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,444,2494,1569],"class_list":["post-37546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-lando-norris","tag-mcl39","tag-oscar-piastri"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37546"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37578,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37546\/revisions\/37578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}