McLaren want Red Bull-RB relationship addressed after “peculiar” fastest lap

McLaren have called for the relationship between Red Bull and RB to be “addressed” after Daniel Ricciardo denied Lando Norris the fastest lap point at the F1 Singapore Grand Prix.

Having set the fastest lap on Lap 48, Norris had been on course to take eight points out of Max Verstappen's championship lead on his way to winning Sunday’s race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit ahead of the Red Bull driver.

Red Bull's sister team RB decided to pit Ricciardo late on for fresh soft tyres and the Australian went on to claim the fastest lap on the final lap. While Ricciardo was not eligible to score a point due to running outside the top-10, he snatched the point off Norris and McLaren, aiding Verstappen and Red Bull’s title bids.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella described the decision as “peculiar”, though he admitted he could not prove the intention behind the fastest lap effort.

“This is a big matter. As soon as you invoke the sportsmanship, I think you need to approach this with a sense of responsibility that I want to have,” Stella.

"I don't know the facts, I just saw that Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap and they achieved it. But for me, talk about sportsmanship and so on, I think it would be out of place. I think we have to take it at face value that 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, a Drivers' Championship, it's not a coalition championship. Therefore, this needs to be definitely addressed.

"But at no point do I have elements now to say Racing Bulls went for the fastest lap to support Red Bull, I just find it a little peculiar. I did not see it coming.

“I was a little surprised that the highest priority of Racing Bull's racing in Singapore was to go and score the fastest lap of the race.

"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 has a 52-point gap to Verstappen with six races remaining, while McLaren hold a 41-point lead over Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, who has previously argued that F1 shouldn’t allow teams to have a shared owner, said he will again raise questions over ‘B-teams’.

“That’s a nice A/B-team sporting thing that I didn’t think was allowed,” Brown told SiriusXM. “But that’s not the first time we’ve seen it, probably won’t be the last.

“It’s something I’ve spoken about in the past and I think it illustrates that it does happen, because I think you wouldn’t have made that pit stop to go for that.

“It’s not going to get anyone a point, so I think it does illustrate the issue around that topic.”

The fastest lap has been viewed as Ricciardo’s final act in F1, with the Australian tipped to be replaced before next month’s United States Grand Prix by Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson.

RB boss Laurent Mekies admitted Singapore “may have been Daniel’s last race” and said the team “wanted to give him the chance to savour it and go out with the fastest lap”.

Ricciardo, who was dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022, joked he expects a Christmas present from Red Bull.

“Part of me is – I don’t mean this against Lando – but part of me is hoping Max wins by one point, because I think I guaranteed myself a really nice Christmas present if so,” he told Sky Sports F1.