McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has called for the relationship between Red Bull and RB to be “addressed” after Daniel Ricciardo’s “peculiar” fastest lap at the Singapore Grand Prix stole a point away from race winner Lando Norris.
With the McLaren dominant around Marina Bay, Norris was looking at taking eight points out of Max Verstappen’s lead at the top of the drivers’ championship, having set the fastest time on lap 48.
However, that extra point was lost as Ricciardo, running at the back of the field in what increasingly appears to be his last race in Formula 1, came into the pits for a fresh set of soft tyres and went almost half a second quicker than Norris’ best effort on his final lap.
Ricciardo does not get a point as he finished outside the top 10 but, with the McLaren now clearly the fastest car on the grid, everything could count as Norris aims to close a now-52-point gap to Red Bull's Verstappen in the final six grands prix of the season.
While Stella did not outright accuse Red Bull and its sister team of collusion in Singapore, he said a more long-term discussion might be required about the closeness of the two squads.
“This is a big matter. You know, as soon as you invoke the sportsmanship, I think you need to approach this with a sense of responsibility, that I want to have,” he said when asked about the call.
“I don't know the facts. I just saw that RB went for the fastest lap, and they achieved it. But for me here talk about sportsmanship and so on, I think is... it would be out of place. So I think we have to take it at face value.
“They scored the fastest lap, and potentially as part of a longer-term conversation, we need to put the sport in a position in which, at any stage - being it trackside or being it factory-side - teams behave in a totally autonomous manner, because this is a constructors' championship.
“This needs to be definitely addressed. But at no point I have elements now to say RB went for the fastest lap to support the Red Bull. I just find it a little... how to say... peculiar. I did not see it coming.
“I was a little surprised that the highest priority of RB racing in Singapore was to go and score the fastest lap of the race. I think we just have to work harder to make sure that this [championship] doesn't come down to a point.
“At the same time, I have so much sympathy, support and friendship with Daniel that I'm just happy that he may add this fastest lap to his track record.”
Norris said the two teams made a “smart play” in securing the fastest lap for former McLaren team-mate Ricciardo, admitting it was the “logical thing” to do.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner would not be drawn on the situation and said it was up to RB to explain their reasoning, although Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez revealed the team had considered pitting him to aim for the fastest time.
“I don’t know what happened there. I think the team was discussing it…so I think in the end we decided to stay as it was decided anyway. I think the team was thinking about it but in the end it didn’t happen,” he concluded.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble and Ronald Vording
