Oscar Piastri expectations judged 'quite low' as F1 avoided 'silly manipulation'

F1 and McLaren avoided the prospect of being judged "pretty silly" if the team had ordered Lando Norris to hand back a position to Oscar Piastri following their minor collision during last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

That is the verdict of former F1 driver Perry McCarthy in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365.

Championship rivals Piastri and Norris banged wheels after the Briton made a move up the inside of the Australian through Turn 3 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Their contact was a domino-effect result of Norris clipping the back of Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

Piastri immediately voiced his anger and frustration at what he felt was an ill-judged move by Norris, leading to him being barged out of the way. Piastri went so far as to ask for his team-mate to hand back the place.

After the stewards determined no action was required over the incident, McLaren also denied Piastri's request, albeit assuring him the matter would be discussed post-race, to which he replied that their decision was "unfair".

That followed a McLaren call during the Italian Grand Prix when Piastri was asked to swap places with Norris due to a slow pit stop for the latter that dropped him behind when they were running second and third behind Verstappen.

Judging Piastri's call in Singapore, McCarthy, who was also Top Gear's The Stig for many years, said: "What his real expectations were, of any action being taken for that, were probably quite low.

"But it doesn't stop him from trying to gain an advantage for himself in that situation.

"It's quite busy in the cockpit, but if he'd had any moment to think about it realistically, he'd probably recognise there was no way they [McLaren] are going to do that [swap positions].

"And McLaren themselves, to be fair, were never going to do that, because, first off, the FIA judged it to be totally fair. The team then judged it to be totally fair.

"Could you imagine manipulating a race in that way, where Singapore is so difficult to overtake anyway? Formula 1 itself, and the McLaren team, would have been looked at as being pretty silly."

Piastri and Norris 'only human'

Given the moment for Piastri in Singapore followed on two weeks after his crash woes in qualifying and the race for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McCarthy dismissed suggestions of 'a wobble' for the 24-year-old.

Highlighting the fact that "these boys" in Piastri and Norris are "dealing with an awful lot of pressure", McCarthy said: "It's only human that sometimes comes through in one way or another.

"I wouldn't be disrespectful enough to use the word wobble. Oscar and Lando have both shown incredible skill and resilience, and dealing at the front end, as they both are, the pressure on each of them is enormous.

"The pressure on Oscar is to protect his lead in the world championship, and the pressure is on Lando, with fewer and fewer races remaining, to try to get some meaningful points difference.

"From first to second there is a spread of seven points. If you've got Oscar finishing second, and Lando wins, he has taken seven points out of him, rather than third and fourth, and you're only taking three points out."