{"id":930938,"date":"2026-10-17T02:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930938\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T02:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:18:14","slug":"bold-oscar-piastri-lando-norris-contract-idea-after-singapore-gp-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930938\/","title":{"rendered":"Bold Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris contract idea after Singapore GP clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Aston Martin<\/a> and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer has suggested that McLaren should link the contracts of Lando Norris<\/a> and Oscar Piastri to the team\u2019s championship position in order to stamp out incidents like Singapore.<\/p>\n

That theory comes after McLaren team principal Andrea Stella confirmed that talks are \u201cnot finished\u201d over how the Papaya squad moves forward after its drivers collided during the Singapore Sprint.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris McLaren contract under spotlight<\/p>\n

Norris and Piastri<\/a> both went spinning in the closing stages of the mini race around Marina Bay, the Brit having attempted a move at Turn 5 which failed to pay off.<\/p>\n

Piastri was out, while Norris finished P8.<\/p>\n

With the latter having apologised and the incident put in the past, according to Piastri, McLaren was happy to move on from analysing blame, though Stella confirmed that the team is \u201cnot finished\u201d with its driver talks as it wants to achieve a clear, united plan moving forward.<\/p>\n

Appearing on the High Performance Racing podcast, Szafnauer was asked what he would be saying to Norris and Piastri, in McLaren\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

Stella had called the incident \u201cunacceptable\u201d and CEO Zak Brown branded it \u201cunnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Szafnauer said: \u201cYou just have to reiterate the fact that they\u2019re not in a championship fight. You\u2019re not going to win the world championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big fight for us is third in the constructors\u2019 and this move was never going to help the team at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the last lap, you\u2019re not improving our championship position at all. Even if you swap places, it\u2019s the same for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad judgement. And the only reason you did it is to make yourself one point better off over your teammate, and that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about. Not now. You have got to point that out to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Oscar Piastri from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

McLaren launches review following \u2018unusual\u2019 Piastri puncture<\/a><\/p>\n

McLaren confirms fresh Norris and Piastri talks after Singapore clash<\/a><\/p>\n

The American was speaking alongside Rob Smedley, the former Ferrari engineer and ex-Williams head of vehicle performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between third and fourth in the championship is a lot of money,\u201d Smedley pointed out.<\/p>\n

Szafnauer concurred, and suggested that McLaren makes sure this is reflected in the contracts of Norris and Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a significant amount of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think, in those contracts, you\u2019ve got to link that championship position to a nice bonus in both drivers\u2019 contracts, so they think twice, because if the team loses, they lose too. If you have that incentive, maybe they think twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they are racers, and if they see a gap, and you\u2019re sitting behind your teammate who you think you\u2019re faster than, and you think, \u2018I\u2019ve got one lap left to get them,\u2019 and you don\u2019t have that in your contract, I can see why you\u2019re doing it. You\u2019re a racer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you\u2019re right,\u201d Smedley came back in with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked at teams where the driver\u2019s bonus structure has been driven by constructors\u2019 position, and I\u2019ve worked at teams where the driver\u2019s bonus is driven by the amount of points that they get on just their car, and world championship position. I think that can drive bad behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done contracts where it\u2019s both,\u201d Szafnauer added, \u201cso they get money per point, thousands of pounds per point that they score, but also are rewarded if you\u2019re top four in the championship, top three in the championship, two and one.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you just have to make sure that the more money is based on where the team finishes, because that\u2019s what drives your income from Formula 1. So it\u2019s more that than your individual points.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in a sprint race, it was only one point. It was unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren remains third in the F1 2026 Constructors\u2019 standings<\/a> though Red Bull is now only seven points behind, following back-to-back Grand Prix wins for Max Verstappen, who also took the Singapore Sprint victory.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Jack Doohan status update as Haas makes final F1 2027 driver decision<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Aston Martin and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer has suggested that McLaren should link the contracts of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,818,1737,913,806,805,803,804,44,2333,85],"class_list":["post-930938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-news","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}