When Lando Norris' McLaren grounded to a halt at the Dutch Grand Prix, before teammate Oscar Piastri crossed the line to score a maximum of 25 points, it felt as if a chance at the championship may have started to slip through his fingers.
However, he has not been beaten by his Australian teammate in any of the three races since and has reduced a once-34 point lead to 22 points.
Of course, it has not been without drama as McLaren ordered a switch of their two cars at the Italian Grand Prix, following a slow stop for Norris that dropped him behind his teammate.
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Then in Azerbaijan, Piastri ignominiously crashed out of both Q3 and the race's first lap. And in Singapore, the two collided forcing Piastri to cede third place.
The latter of those moments frustrated the points leader more vocally than at any other point throughout the 2025 season, thus far, with a clear internal debate brewing about what is deemed as 'fair racing' between the standings' two leading contenders.
McLaren have emphasised their view of fairness throughout the campaign and maintained that with their Monza swap, but with the constructors' championship now clinched, how does that affect the battle between their cars?
Oscar Piastri makes his feelings known after contact with his teammate Lando Norris on the first lap 🗣️#F1 #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/lODUJHZcd3
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 5, 2025
The squad's team principal Andrea Stella told Sky Sports F1 that, outlining the need for an internal review of their drivers' Singapore wheel-banging: "Our review needs to be very detailed, very analytical.
"It needs to take into account the point of view of our two drivers and then we will form a common opinion based on which we will see whether we can just confirm our initial interpretation or there's something else that we should conclude."
Is McLaren's approach set to be stress-tested?
If Piastri feels that Norris crossed a line in Singapore and his team fail to acknowledge that, does that weaken the 'Papaya rules' that have been evident for over a year now?
Because as Singapore demonstrated, the overall potential is being compromised because the internal McLaren fight is more immediate and more pertinent to the championship, as things stand.
During that race, Norris opted to cover off any undercut threat from teammate Piastri rather than continuing to build a tyre delta that would have made it even trickier for Max Verstappen to defend second place from him, later that race.
That is not a matter of unfairness, that is simply the lead driver being offered the prerogative on strategy. However, it demonstrates how tight this championship battle is.
With the world champion's orders to swap the cars at the Italian Grand Prix, would a similar incidence yield the same outcome? And what would be the ramifications if one driver did not comply?
Piastri's trouble is that Norris is chipping away at the buffer that he had built beforehand and Norris has not even been at his striking best in recent races. His qualifying lap in Azerbaijan was disappointing, and compromised his weekend, while a poor safety car restart and later pit stop did not help either.
And in Singapore, he was not especially quick in qualifying and benefitted hugely from being on the clean side of the grid at the race start.
And although Norris was bold in chancing a move on his teammate, he was lucky to have completed an overtake that he at least slightly misjudged, given that he clipped Verstappen ahead before banging wheels with his teammate.
But what about Norris at his best? Because if he can at least beat Piastri on his non-sublime weekends, an area that was a weakness before, what could a race victory do to his title hopes?
With a maximum of 33 points on offer this weekend, the United States Grand Prix presents the perfect time for the gap to be closed ever more.
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