New leading theory emerges on Lando Norris ‘repercussions’ at McLaren

From Canal+ to Sky Sports, there is speculation in the pit lane that McLaren has granted Oscar Piastri priority in qualifying as Lando Norris’ “repercussion” for breaking the team’s papaya rules at the Singapore Grand Prix.

It, however, didn’t help Piastri in Austin as he qualified behind his teammate, P6 to Norris’ P2 result.

Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri: McLaren repercussions

⦁ McLaren refused to divulge Lando Norris’ ‘repercussions’
⦁ Speculation it has ‘something to do with a procedure’
⦁ Alleged qualifying consequences for Lando Norris

All but assured of the teams’ trophy at the Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren experienced its first notable flashpoint of the F1 2025 season as Norris clattered into Piastri on the opening lap in Singapore.

The Australian was aggrieved that McLaren refused to take action in the heat of the moment for his teammate’s “wasn’t very teamlike” actions, but his race engineer Tom Stallard was adamant it was a conversation for after the race.

A conversation that saw Norris face “repercussions” until “the end of the season”.

What those repercussions are, Norris, Piastri and the McLaren bosses aren’t saying.

“No, we don’t want to get into that,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown said at the United States Grand Prix weekend. “I think it’s private business between us.

“I know everyone’s interested to know that. Both drivers are in a great place, and we just want to set them up to continue to be able to race each other hard.

“It’s not easy having two number one drivers, but we want to have both drivers competing for the championship, and with that comes challenges that are more challenging than if you had a number one or two driver, which we’ve seen over the years.

“So we’re racers. We like to see them race, but we don’t like to see them touch each other.”

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The American went on to say, “It’s very marginal. It probably won’t be noticed. Lando and Oscar know what it is, which is what’s most important.”

McLaren’s refusal to divulge the details has led to speculation as to what Norris’ repercussion might be.

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle reckons, “it will be something to do with a procedure I imagine that gives Piastri an upper hand over Norris. That’s the deal they will have had.”

His fellow pundit Ted Kravitz claims it specifically relates to qualifying with Piastri given preferential track position.

“So I’ve asked Mercedes,” said the pit lane reporter, “and they said, ‘We don’t know what the repercussions are’, but I asked Red Bull, and they said, ‘We think the repercussions are they’re going to give Oscar Piastri the priority in all the qualifying sessions coming to the end of the season’.

“Oscar will be effectively treated in the qualifying sessions as the number one driver.”

That seems to be the general consensus amongst media sources, Piastri will be McLaren’s number one when it comes to qualifying.

Canal+ reported that the repercussions are that Piastri gets to choose whether he goes out before or after Norris in every qualifying session for the remainder of the season. He would, effectively, be McLaren’s de facto number one but only in qualifying.

Piastri unable to capitalise on ‘sporting repercussion’

Brown called Norris’ punishment, if you will, a “little bit of a sporting repercussion in lieu of what happened”. But again, he would not go into details about what exactly that sporting penalty would be.

If, and it’s a big if given McLaren has not revealed any details, Norris’ punishment for his Singapore Grand Prix antics was to play second fiddle to Piastri in qualifying, it didn’t work in Austin.

Norris was out on track ahead of his Australian teammate but while, theoretically, that meant Piastri had the better track conditions, he wasn’t able to beat Norris on Saturday afternoon. In fact, he was three-tenths down on his teammate.

Norris crossed the line in his final hot lap in second place with Piastri yet to complete his lap. Minor mistakes from the championship leader through Turns 6 and 7 cost him time compared to his teammate with Piastri also down at Turn 11.

He may have had track position on Norris, but the pressure was also on.

Starting on the third row, Oscar Piastri feels the US Grand Prix weekend has "just not clicked" for him so far.https://t.co/LqwWgxonsp

— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) October 19, 2025

‘Sporting repercussion’ won’t relate to grands prix

One thing is clear, McLaren’s sporting consequence for Norris won’t carry through to grand prix Sundays.

Trailing Piastri by 22 points after neither scored in Saturday’s Sprint as a result of a lap 1 crash, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has made it clear neither Piastri nor Norris will be favoured in any way on a Sunday.

“We review our approach constantly, but we are a long way from being in condition to say that we are going to prioritise one driver over the other, especially as long as the chances are realistic for both drivers,” Stella said.

“This is the way we intend racing. This is the way in which we approach racing, we want to remain fair, and we want to apply equality to both drivers. So this is the situation at the moment.”

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