What is McLaren’s ‘marginal’ Norris penalty most likely to be?

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McLaren have caused a media storm at the United States Grand Prix by refusing to reveal details of a sporting penalty that will be applied to Lando Norris for colliding with title rival and team-mate Oscar Piastri in Singapore.

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella said after the race in Singapore that they saw no reason to take action over the first-lap overtake, but Norris stunned the paddock on Thursday in Austin by revealing he would face “repercussions” that could impact him until the end of the season.

The Brit trails Piastri by 22 points with six rounds of the 2025 season remaining, with the unknown sanction appearing to stiffen his task of chasing down the Australian.

Across two separate interviews with Sky Sports F1 on Friday at The Circuit of The Americas, Brown confirmed the sanctions applied to Norris would be “marginal” and claimed the team would have “zero interference” on a grand prix Sunday.

With the team’s refusal to confirm the exact nature of the sanctions leading to huge uncertainty going into the Sprint event, Sky Sports F1 have pieced together the information shared by McLaren to assess what Norris’ punishment is most likely to be.

What did Brown tell Sky?

Speaking to the Sky Sports F1 commentary team from the McLaren pit wall during the sole practice session of the weekend in Austin, Brown said the sanction was “a little bit of a sporting repercussion in lieu of what happened.”

Pressed on the details, he replied: “It’s marginal, it’s consistent with what happened. It’s a racing incident at the end of the day, at the start of a Grand Prix on a track that was somewhat damp. It wasn’t intentional.

“It’s very marginal. It probably won’t be noticed. Lando and Oscar know what it is, which is what’s most important.

“Of course we want to be transparent with our fans. We are doing it the hard way, trying to let both guys race for the championship – the easy way out would be to have a one and two, as some teams do, but that’s now how McLaren want to go racing.”

Brown was also asked, in a separate interview, to provide clarity on Norris’ suggestion on Thursday that the penalty could impact him until the end of the season.

In a somewhat contradictory answer, Brown said: “It’s a one-off thing, but maybe not just one race.”

Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz then asked Brown whether he could reassure McLaren fans that the team would not be interfering with races on a Sunday.

Brown said there would be “zero interference” on a Sunday, before adding: “We want them to race. We’re excited. We treat them very equally, very fairly.

“I understand that everyone watching has a view, that’s a cool thing about sport, but I can tell everybody that we’re letting them race hard, fairly and equally, on a Sunday afternoon.”

What could the punishment be?

While Brown didn’t explicitly confirm the nature of the sanction, he appeared to offer a strong inference that the penalty would take place on a Saturday, rather than a Sunday.

That puts in play a possible procedural advantage for Piastri in qualifying, such as being able to choose whether he goes out before or after Norris for crucial runs.

Teams without a clear No 1 driver would usually alternate that privilege from race to race, so McLaren could give him that advantage at the next two races, for example, before going back to alternating.

Piastri emerged from the pit lane after Norris for their sole flying laps in the final part of Sprint Qualifying in Austin on Friday, but Norris was faster as he took second behind Verstappen with Piastri third.

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle also speculated that Piastri could be favoured should McLaren bring any new parts before the end of the season.

“It will be something to do with a procedure I imagine that gives Piastri an upper hand over Norris,” Brundle said. “That’s the deal they will have had.

“You can race from lights out to chequered flag, the only rule is you can’t run into each other.

“It could be about slipstreaming, maybe Norris has to give Piastri a tow at some circuits, maybe if a new wing comes along, one driver gets it.

“But they won’t do anything that compromises the overall performance of the team and the two drivers against the opposition, especially with Max Verstappen cruising in their rear-view mirrors in the championship.”

Why are McLaren taking this approach?

While there’s confusion in the paddock over McLaren sanctioning Norris for what many, including the stewards in Singapore, adjudged to be a fair racing manoeuvre, the team say that the decision has been made after consultation of the framework they agreed at the start of the season.

Stella said on Friday: “The repercussions or consequences, they are part of our framework. This is something both drivers were keen to have in the racing framework.”

Perhaps more confusing to onlookers is the decision to announce the sanctions but refuse to share the details.

Regardless of whether one agrees with punishing Norris, it surely would have made more sense for the team to publicly say that the issue had been handled internally, and that was that.

Instead, the whole paddock is trying to work out what penalty Norris is facing, and how significant it could prove in the title race.

It’s worth noting that it was Norris who first told the media that he was facing “repercussions”, so it is also possible that he alone chose to share that detail, rather than it having been agreed by all at the team to discuss the measures publicly.

Brundle ultimately concluded that McLaren are paying the price for choosing to have two No 1 drivers.

He said: “The whole system is set up to fail. You have two extremely competitive athletes in a team environment, as employees and the final link in the chain representing 1500 people. They are paid as employees but at the end of the day, they are out on track as individuals, so of course that will go wrong.

“McLaren are choosing to handle it this way. Some would say, and I would say to an extent, the regulations cover that and if you barge into each other, you get penalties or punctures. That’s how McLaren have decided to go racing.”

“The drivers know this overall ethos with Andrea Stella and Zak Brown has taken them from last in the field in early 2023 to back-to-back champions.

“The two drivers are smart enough to know the overall system works very well but it feels a bit clunky because people don’t understand what’s going on.”

Sky Sports F1’s live United States GP schedule

Saturday October 18
5pm: United States GP Sprint build-up
6pm: UNITED STATES GP SPRINT
7pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
9pm: United States GP Qualifying build-up*
10pm: UNITED STATES GP QUALIFYING*
12am (Sunday morning): Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday October 19
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 are in North America for the United States Grand Prix in Austin this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime

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