Lando Norris blamed as McLaren situation with Oscar Piastri gets 'worse'

F1 star Lando Norris has been told he has made his situation at McLaren 'worse for himself' following the Singapore Grand Prix.

The British driver currently trails McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri by 22 points in the drivers' championship with six races remaining in the season, but that gap could have been bigger had Piastri not been so accommodating at the Italian GP last month.

Following a botched pit stop for Norris, Piastri had gone ahead of his rival, but let him back through having been told to by McLaren to maintain fairness in the championship battle.

However, after Piastri felt like he had been 'barged' out of the way by Norris at the Singapore GP, McLaren did not implement team orders between the pair, leading Piastri to say on team radio that it was 'unfair'.

Starting fifth with Piastri in third, Norris made a bold move on lap one, squeezing past Piastri and Kimi Antonelli and up into third within the first couple of corners, a position he would stay for the rest of the race.

But the move almost knocked Piastri into the wall, and he had to take avoiding action. Nevertheless, McLaren and FIA race stewards deemed the move to be fair from Norris, and he cut Piastri's gap in the standings for the third grand prix in a row.

Now, F1 pundit Peter Windsor has suggested that Norris' move may just have sparked a fire in Piastri that will be hard to put out for the remainder of the season, as both drivers chase a maiden world championship.

"He's made it worse for himself because what he's done now is ignited a fire under Oscar Piastri right from here to the end of the year for sure," Windsor told the Cameron CC YouTube channel. "And before the first corner in Singapore, there was some compliance probably between the two, mainly Oscar giving Lando a bit of room, but I don't think that's going to apply anymore regardless of what the team say to Oscar.

"Now Oscar's going to have Mark Webber in his ear, which is a good thing, saying mate you know it's your championship. You don't get many chances. Go for it. And he's absolutely correct to do that.

"This will not go away. He's a professional… he'll be very nice about the constructor's championship and he'll say the right things, but deep down inside, I can tell you now, he'll be burning inside."

A three-way fight?

While the focus has been on Piastri and Norris, four-time champion Max Verstappen has been nudging himself into contention too, with four consecutive finishes of either first or second.

The Dutchman is now just 63 points behind Piastri, and is the only one of the three who has championship-winning experience.

With three sprint races still to come in 2025 too, there are still plenty of points on offer, but any chance of a Verstappen title victory will likely have to involve several races where on-track fights between Piastri and Norris rule them out of podium contention.

He will need more incidents like the coming together at the Singapore GP between the pair in order to start making a dent on that huge lead that Piastri holds over him, and Verstappen may even need to win every race from here on out.

The fact that the constructors' championship is wrapped up, however, suggests that McLaren may be a little less strict on their drivers as we approach the last few race weekends in the season.

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