Last year’s Singapore Grand Prix was thrilling, but this year took it up a notch, particularly for McLaren. Though George Russell (Mercedes) won the race itself, McLaren won the whole Constructors Championship.
While it might seem weird that something called a “World Constructors Championship” could be won in the middle of the year, this was really McLaren’s championship to lose. Lando Norris (McLaren) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren) have been working together as well as they can to win the championship. Since they both are also fighting for the title of World Drivers Champion, there were more than enough points for them to blow the other teams out of the water.
It was not an easy road for the two drivers to get there. The leaders of the team, Zac Brown and Andrea Stella, have made no secret that they each favor one of the drivers over the other. The only problem is that they each favor a different one. Stella seems to outwardly favor Piastri, while Brown clearly favors Norris.
Why is this a problem? Norris and Piastri are now only 22 points away from each other in the Drivers Championship. This does not bode well for what fans and the team itself refer to as “Papaya Rules”. These rules, specifically titled for the papaya-colored team, have been having an effect on Norris and Piastris fights on the track, especially in the pit lane.
For a team that just won a championship, they’ve been a mess for the majority of the season after summer break. Their inability to pick a “number one driver” is clear, but also, the team and the fans don’t really know which of the drivers actually have the chops to win.
It will be exciting to see, and hopefully the championship winner will become more clear after the sprint and race in Austin, TX.