McLaren's messy collision between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at the Singapore Sprint is still causing headaches, and now there's talk about whether the team can even enforce team orders going forward. The incident happened on the final lap when Norris tried an ambitious pass on his teammate while running P4 and P5, resulting in Piastri hitting the wall and Norris limping home to eighth place with just one point. Team principal Andrea Stella was absolutely furious after the race, and it sparked debate about what McLaren had or hadn't told their drivers to do.

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Journalist Tom Clarkson reckoned on the F1 Nation podcast that team orders had definitely been discussed with the drivers, probably just before the Sprint or earlier in the weekend. The way Stella reacted suggested there was some kind of agreement that Norris had broken. Jolyon Palmer chimed in, saying that if such an agreement existed, it would technically count as team orders, even if McLaren's famous 'papaya rules' policy hadn't been explicitly radioed to the drivers during the race.

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Here's where it gets interesting though. F1 commentator Alex Jacques suggested that McLaren actually can't contractually force team orders on either driver without causing serious problems behind the scenes. This likely stems from the drama of 2025, when McLaren aggressively used team orders to help Lando Norris win the championship. Oscar Piastri felt hard done by, having led the championship for 15 race weekends before ending up third, while Max Verstappen even claimed Piastri had 'sold his soul' to team orders.

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Piastri's manager Mark Webber was reportedly planning tough talks with McLaren over the winter break, and it's quite possible he pushed to add clauses protecting his driver from being forced into team order situations again. If that's the case, it would explain why Jacques thinks the Woking team's hands are now tied when it comes to instructing their two drivers on how to race each other. The whole situation shows just how complicated things have become at McLaren after last season's title-winning tactics.

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