Lazy Thoughts on the Singapore Grand Prix

We should address the elephant in the room. McLaren has officially secured the Constructors’ Championship title for 2025— their second consecutive WCC and 10th overall. But the victory comes with a catch. Well, several catches at that.

The team didn’t even win the race that crowned him. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had to seal the title from P3 and P4 on pure accumulation. I guess it’s a sort of karma for weeks of “papaya rules” that always happen to inconvenience Piastri, who’s leading the Drivers’ Championship.

Let’s not forget Monza last month, where team orders flipped track position after a slow stop for Norris. Add today’s stacked stop and the quiet arithmetic that always seems to take Norris’s side, and it reads like the papaya team has a clear vision for who they want this year’s champion to be— and it’s not the current front-runner. Piastri wasn’t even seen at the WCC celebration; a weird snub considering he and Norris have an equal amount of podium finishes.

But what the hell? Let’s talk about how the McLaren boys fared in the race today. It seemed to be in Piasti’s favor at the start, the Australian out-qualifying his teammate by almost six-hundredths of a second (P3 at +0.366s from pole versus P5 at +0.428s). It was a tidy buffer at Marina Bay, where track position is integral.

The script flipped the second the lights went out. Norris pushed himself on the first lap, tagging Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen before ricocheting into Piastri. The result? Norris got track position for good, Piastri picked up light front-wing damage and a spike of radio fury, and McLaren cemented the order with a stacked stop that kept Norris ahead.

I know we’re not supposed to speculate on inter-team relations, but I can’t help but wonder if Piastri is forming any kind of quiet rebellion or resentment. No mutiny (at least not yet), but the kind of “I deserve better than this” feeling that builds up over time, turning into subtle moves and decisions you see on the race track. You know, like forcing the pit wall to choose between brake temps and team harmony. Like “missing: the perfect delta on an out-lap so the overcut window stays open. Like refusing to burn extra battery to protect Norris’s tires. None of it is outright sabotage, but it would be an indicator that Piastri’s trust in the team is cracking.

Because our newly-crowned Constructors’ Champions finished P3 and P4, we might as well cover today’s podium in reverse order. And in P2 is the second reason why the win was underwhelming: the Drivers’ Championship is facing some tight competition.

Max Verstappen secured P2 during qualifying, almost two-tenths a second ahead of Piastri. An impressive result at the one circuit he hasn’t won at— something everyone on social media wanted to remind you of, apparently. The score was slightly sourced by Norris, who told the press, “Red Bull always complain” after Verstappen said catching the McLaren cost him a shot at pole. Max’s version: traffic ruined the final sector. Lando’s version: nothing to see here. Either way, it put a little static in the air before lights out.

Compared to the end of qualifying, Verstappen’s race was mostly drama-free. We already discussed how Norris tagged him in the first lap. But once that chaos wrapped up, the Dutchman ran a disciplined P2: he kept the car in clean air windows, respected Marina Bay’s track-position economy, and leaned on classic street-circuit craft. When Norris tried to close in late, Max managed the threat without cracking—enough control to keep McLaren behind. Despite not winning the race, it seems Verstappen is on the brink of a comeback— and I’m excited to see if he manages to secure a fifth consecutive WDC against all the odds.

In P1 today is George Russell of Mercedes. The Brit converted his pole position into a cool, clinical lights-to-flag win—his second of the season. He crossed the finish line roughly 5.4 seconds ahead of Verstappen, keeping his cool amidst the high heat on Marina Bay.. Even when Norris started nibbling at Verstappen, Russell kept his pace to ensure a clean victory.

Does Russell have a shot at the championship, though? Mathematically, he’s still in the running (at least according to Stats F1). He’s currently in fourth place with 237 points— just 36 points behind Verstappen. But that’s still a 99-point deficit behind Piastri. With six races (and three sprints) left in the season, he would have to podium at all the remaining races and win at least four of them. Put the two sprint wins he would need and the requirement to outscore both Norris AND Verstappen on the table, and the chance of him winning the WDC seems more like a distant dream.

But hey, if Verstappen has managed a comeback, maybe the tides could turn in Russell’s favor. Whose to say?

And now, my other random thoughts and observations that didn’t make it into the main piece:

That’s all for now. See you in Austin for a very special edition of Lazy Thoughts— the first in my home country!

-F