Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri facing 'doubt and confusion' over McLaren approach

McLaren is inflicting doubt and confusion on its F1 drivers with its approach to managing them amid the ongoing title fight.

That is the view of former F1 driver Derek Daly, who anticipates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will clash once again before the end of the season.

The two championship protagonists came together on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend as they battled through the opening corners.

Having highlighted its desire to ensure equal opportunities for its drivers and enforcing 'papaya rules', McLaren opted not to intervene when Piastri argued he was bumped out of the way by Norris.

Daly has defended Norris' overtake attempt and stated it was right for the FIA stewards and McLaren to leave the matter be.

“What Norris did on the first lap was a racing incident,” Daly exclusively told RacingNews365. “They’re racing.

“If we give penalties - I think there are too many penalties - but if we give more penalties for what happened with Norris on the second corner, I think we'll just sanitise F1 to the point where it won't be true racing.

“But here's the problem - Piastri believes that McLaren should treat him more equally when he's on the wrong side of the fence and Norris believes the same thing.

“So they’ve built in the disagreements by trying to manipulate the situation to have two number ones, and that's an impossible situation to have.”

Piastri currently sits 22 points ahead of Norris with six rounds remaining in the championship.

While the title fight between the duo has been relatively calm, one of the more controversial moments occurred last month at the Italian Grand Prix.

A slow pit stop for Norris caused him to lose track position to Piastri. Running in second and third at the time, McLaren ordered Piastri to hand the position back to Norris.

Daly suggested it was a mistake for McLaren to do so, as it set an uncomfortable precedent for the team. 

“It was totally the wrong thing to do there, but that set the precedent for confusion and consternation further down the road,” he siad.

“A slow pit stop is the team. You can't reward one team, one side of the garage who made a mistake by trying to eliminate it.

“That’s created the situation where there's no doubt in the drivers’ minds of ‘you shouldn't have done that. Why did you do that? Why did you not do this?

“I don’t think we’ve seen the last of it yet.”