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The British driver asserts that "every competitor on the grid" would have attempted the move that sparked fresh controversy between himself and his McLaren teammate the Australian during the recent race.

Norris made contact with Piastri on the exit of turn three at Marina Bay after contact with Max Verstappen's Red Bull sent his car sideways.

The collision could potentially disrupt the well-managed team unity that McLaren has successfully preserved between both competitors through strategic leadership.

Before the race, Norris was behind his teammate by a significant margin in the points table, and reduced that deficit by only a small amount after finishing third behind winner George Russell and Verstappen, with his teammate following in P4.

Racing Opinions

The Briton maintained he had done nothing wrong in passing Piastri.

"Anyone on the starting lineup would have done what I did," he stated. "If you criticize me for going for a big opportunity, you don't belong in F1.

"I was a bit too close to Verstappen, but that's competition. No major incident occurred, I'm certain I would have ended up ahead of Piastri anyway because he had the dirty part of the circuit on the outside.

"Of course I need to analyze it and the worst scenario I want is contact with my racing partner. I am the one who can't afford such situations. I would endanger my position just as much if that occurred.

"I'll review it but the FIA clearly thought it was acceptable 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

The Australian showed displeasure about the incident. He communicated over the in-car communication that the team's decision to take no action about it was "unjust."

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

"The main concern is both vehicles coming together," he commented. "It's never what we want, so I'll analyze it in more depth."

Piastri has already been the driver to suffer in at least multiple debatable incidents this year.

In Hungary, he was the team's frontrunner early in the race but Norris was permitted to use a alternative approach to overtake his teammate, a decision that competitors have questioned.

And in Italy, the Australian was instructed to let Norris back past for second place after the Briton was delayed by a slow pit stop. He complained that he thought there had been an agreement that a delayed service was just normal competition that had to be accepted, but complied regardless.

Internally, he was unhappy about that situation, and he and the squad held discussions to resolve it.

But questioned after the Singapore Grand Prix whether he had worries that Norris might be getting favoritism, the Australian responded: "No."

Did he believe the team had been fair all season?

"Ultimately, affirmative," he stated. "Could things have been improved at specific moments? Yes, but ultimately it's a developmental journey with the entire team and I'm extremely happy that the aims are very well meaning, if that makes sense."

Management Perspective

Team principal the Italian said: "We will conduct detailed analyses, constructive discussions and, similar to post-Canada, we'll come back more resilient and even more united."

Stella stated that although the team had analyzed the incident in its immediate aftermath, "the collision is, actually, a consequence of different circumstances that happened between Lando and Verstappen."

Stella added: "Oscar made some statements while he was in the cockpit but that's the type of character that we want from our competitors. They have to express their views, that's what we require of them.

"Our analysis needs to be extremely thorough, highly methodical, it needs to take into account the viewpoint of our both competitors, and then we will develop a common opinion upon which we will determine whether we can simply validate our initial interpretation or there's additional factors that we should conclude.

"Every time we start our discussions with the competitors, we always recall, as a premise: 'This is challenging'.

"Since this is the only matter in which, when you race together, actually you cannot maintain identical objectives for the both competitors, because they seek to achieve their personal goals. This is a core concept of the approach we take at McLaren.

"We need to be accurate, because there's a lot at risk. That's not just the valuable points, but it's additionally the trust of our drivers in the manner we function as a team, and this is, if anything, more fundamental than the championship standings."

Championship Achievement

The incident deflected attention from the British team securing the constructors' championship for the second consecutive year.

It is the team's 10th constructors' title, placing them above their rivals in the historical rankings into runner-up position after record-holders the Italian team, who have won it on sixteen occasions since the championship's inception in the late fifties.

This achievement represents one of the quickest instances a squad has accomplished this. It matches Red Bull's feat in winning with six races to go in 2023, although that was a 22-race season compared with 24 this year.

The team's lead has reduced as the season enters its concluding phase. That is due in part to the nature of the latest tracks not suiting its capabilities, and also because the team ceased the upgrade process some time ago, while their rivals still have updates arriving to their cars.

This choice by McLaren was based on the reality that they were experiencing diminishing returns in developing this vehicle, common when a concept has such an edge at the beginning of a championship, and that they wanted to ensure they were well prepared for next year.

Norris, though, is fully conscious of the magnitude of his squad's accomplishment, and the impressive transformation they have demonstrated under Stella and chief executive officer Zak Brown from recent history, when they began the previous championship near the rear of the field.

"A second championship is a great thing," he 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 more challenging to achieve with increased limitations and less wind tunnel time.

"In an era when it should be harder than ever to dominate, that's exactly what the squad has accomplished and given us, by a significant margin, the fastest vehicle on the starting lineup.

"It's consistently a pleasing aspect to say. It always brings satisfaction on your face. But we've additionally excelled as a team in terms of drivers, between Oscar and myself {pushing each other