With five laps to go of the Singapore Grand Prix, Lando Norris radioed his engineer asking an important question.
The McLaren driver was sitting in fourth and did not have the pace to challenge championship leader Kimi Antonelli in third.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri played nice after reprimands from McLaren.Getty Images
“Is there anyway to help out behind or not,” he asked, referring to his teammate Oscar Piastri who was stuck in sixth behind Lewis Hamilton, who was dropping paces due to tyre degradation
Norris tried again a few laps later.
“Shall I try and help Oscar out or not,” Norris said over the radio.
“No keep going,” his engineer replied.
Norris’ repeated offers of help were the signs of a good teammate, but also could represent a sheepish driver, who as F1 commentator Martin Brundle noted was trying to “get back in McLaren’s good books”.
Piastri didn’t end up needing his teammate help, overtaking Hamilton in a last-lap battle to clinch fifth – a solid result since his race was marred by a slow pitstop and tyre puncture.
A flawless Max Verstappen went on to win the Singapore Grand Prix with a blistering performance that saw him lead every lap from pole.
Max Verstappen has won for the first time at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. Getty Images
However, a lot of attention was on the McLaren duo, Piastri and Norris following their collision during the sprint race on Saturday.
Norris attempted to overtake his teammate in the final lap of the sprint, but clipped the Australian’s rear tyre with his front wheel.
The impact sent Piastri spinning into the wall and knocked both papaya cars out of podium contention.
Norris later copped scrutiny on social media for his comments in a post-race interview when he sarcastically responded to a journalist who implied his move was “unnecessary”.
“What’s the title of the race?” he asked an interviewer.
“What’s after ‘sprint’?”
When the interviewer replied “race”, he laughed and sarcastically said: “Wow, good job”.
Before Sunday’s main race Zak Brown was uncharacteristically open about how McLaren dealt with the situation.
“That was a ‘don’t do that again’, and we didn’t say please, that’s an order,” he told Sky Sports when asked if he had stern words for the duo.
“You can’t have that, it was unnecessary result for the team when a lot of pressure is on.”
On Sunday, it was clear Norris had listened to the reprimands, offering repeatedly to help Piastri out.
There were no collisions or racing incidents between the duo during Sunday’s race. It was ultimately a slow 4.2 second pitstop that hurt Piastri’s chances of a higher finish. The Australian was also forced to come into the pits a second time after a tyre puncture.
It paints a painful picture of a 2026 season that has not gone to plan for Piastri.
Italian Kimi Antonelli is on the verge of being the youngest world champion in history. Getty Images
On the other end of the scale is Kimi Antonelli – who after finishing third in Singapore– is now mathematically capable of winning the title at the next race in Texas.
If so, it would make him the youngest world champion in history.
When informed of this during a post-race interview, a wide-eyed Kimi Antonelli said he had no idea.
“Can I really?, ” he said.
“Let’s not worry about that, let’s try to do the best job possible and finish the job.”