Jolyon Palmer tells McLaren what they absolutely ‘have to’ do after Lando Norris hit Oscar Piastri in Singapore

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Jolyon Palmer has told McLaren what they ‘have to do’ with their star driver duo following the clash between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the opening lap of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Another race weekend brought another incident involving Norris and Piastri, which may have ramifications for who the 2025 Formula 1 champion will be once the chequered flag falls in Abu Dhabi in December.

With both McLaren cars starting on the grippier racing line, the extra traction helped them to get a good start as the lights dropped to begin the Singapore Grand Prix.

Starting from fifth on the grid, Norris understeered as he sent it down the inside of Piastri, clipping Max Verstappen in the process as his teammate was forced to take a wider line, narrowly missing the barriers on the outside of the corner.

The Australian was furious as he deemed the move unfair, a sentiment that was opposed by F1 fans who told Piastri to ‘stop crying’ following his expletive radio message to the pit wall.

READ MORE: Why Oscar Piastri’s behaviour after the Singapore Grand Prix suggests he’s ‘on his own’ in F1 title fight

Jolyon Palmer tells McLaren they ‘have to let’ Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris race each other

Despite objections from Piastri, his McLaren counterpart kept the third-place position, and the two McLarens would finish the race in the same positions that they finished the first lap in.

Speaking on a breakdown of the incident on F1’s official YouTube channel, former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer gave his verdict on the incident, as well as outlining what McLaren ‘have to’ do in order to alleviate some pressure on the pit wall in these instances.

“I can understand Oscar feeling a little bit aggrieved at this point,” Palmer said after watching the incident back. “But in this instance, they were right to let the drivers race on.

“They should have done that in Monza. They made a rod for their own back, and it’s happened for the very first time that the drivers are racing each other again on the track.

“The question is what happens now moving forward? They have to let the drivers race. This is the moment where we’re going to see gloves off in the championship.”

Norris addressed the incident immediately after the race in his pre-podium interview, citing the incident as a result of the slippery circuit caused by the rain that fell prior to the start of the race.

READ MORE: Oscar Piastri has ‘already set his sights’ on leaving McLaren for rival F1 team in 2027

Jolyon Palmer also highlighted ‘the problem’ that McLaren are in the midst of getting themselves in

The former F1 driver also went on to highlight the ‘problem’ that McLaren are in danger of falling further into following the previous team orders that have been given to their driving pairing in Grands Prix throughout the last two seasons.

“Do you think Lando and Oscar should have swapped like they did in Monza? My fundamental answer is no, but I don’t think they should have swapped in Monza,” Palmer added.

“And this is the problem that McLaren are getting themselves into here with their manipulation of what they deem fair. The difficulty is that they’re kind of acting as their own race stewards between the two drivers.

“I can understand Oscar asking for it; the contact certainly put him off. It certainly cemented the move for Lando.

“But in my opinion, that’s hard wheel-to-wheel racing. Little touches happened on the first lap. The stewards looked at it and sensibly thought there was nothing more in that.”

A change in attitude was noticed from both drivers’ radio messages to their team throughout the race in Singapore. A similar incident to the slow pit-stop moment from Monza could have been replicated if Norris hadn’t changed his mind about letting Piastri pit first.

The McLaren duo will duke it out at the next stop on the F1 calendar at the United States Grand Prix. With the result in Singapore seeing Piastri’s championship lead cut down to 22 points, the British driver will be hoping to eat into the deficit even more at the Circuit of the Americas.