With McLaren remaining tight-lipped over what the “repercussions” coming the way of Lando Norris entail, Martin Brundle offered his verdict on what they may be.

Pointing to sanctions such as being required to provide the slipstream to teammate Oscar Piastri, Brundle stressed that McLaren will make sure that the measures faced by Norris do not impact the team against rivals. Brundle also warned that the competitive juices means a “doomed to fail” scenario for the Norris and Piastri harmony.

Lando Norris repercussions: Martin Brundle suggests McLaren options

On the eve of the United States Grand Prix, Norris revealed that he is facing “repercussions” at McLaren which will last until “the end of the season”, after banging wheels with teammate Piastri on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix.

What those repercussions are, is the great mystery, though McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown offered some hints amid the McLaren secrecy.

“We set out at the beginning of the year how we want to race and how we want to race each other, and the papaya rules, which everyone likes to talk about, is pretty much one rule: don’t touch each other and don’t run each other off the track,” said Brown as he spoke in the team bosses press conference.

“So it’s quite simple, and it’s kind of taken on a life of its own. We just want to make sure that, while they’re racing hard, they don’t come together.

“That puts them at risk, puts the team at risk, and so we agreed with them in the offseason how we would handle certain situations. We worked with them with different consequences for different situations.

“It was a pretty minor situation, so it’s a pretty minor consequence.”

Asked to shed some light on what that “consequence” for Norris may be, Brown replied: “No, we don’t want to get into that. I think it’s private business between us.”

Brundle, appearing as a pundit for Sky F1, offered some hints of his own.

“Clearly, whatever they’re going to do, will be inside the team and won’t affect the team against others,” he said.

“It’s sort of slightly odd here, because I think what McLaren are doing is actually, for the sport, very good. They can race from lights out to the chequered flag with one proviso: don’t run into each other. And there are then, obviously, these consequences it’s going to be.

“Now, if that hadn’t have been Piastri alongside him, the team would have cheered those first few corners for Lando. They were actually brilliantly driven. He happened to just touch his teammate.

“But, if we were in a development race, I think it would be, for example, Oscar would get the new parts first, something like that. Or if it’s a slipstream track, we need a slipstream in qualifying, Oscar would get priority on that. It will be that kind of inter-team thing that doesn’t hand any advantage to other teams.”

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris head-to-head in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

McLaren has committed to creating as fairer playing field as possible for Piastri and Norris in their battle for Drivers’ Championship glory.

It is a partnership which has remained very harmonious considering the stakes, but as the season draws closer to its conclusion, and Max Verstappen in an improved Red Bull RB21 grows more threatening, Brundle believes Singapore is a sign of things to come between Piastri and Norris.

“There’s a championship to be won, and they’ve both got a fantastic car at McLaren,” said Brundle.

“Max is appearing in the rear view mirrors quite quickly as well in the last few races.

“In many respects, this setup, is doomed to fail. You’ve got two supremely competitive athletes working in a team environment. It’s always going to go wrong. It’s just a question of how the teams handle it.”

Norris goes into the United States 22 points behind teammate and Championship leader Piastri.

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