McLaren And Ferrari Crash In Pitlane During Chaotic Practice Session In Singapore

McLaren can win the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship this weekend in Singapore if they lead the standings by 303 points when the weekend is all said and done. But after misery in Zandvoort and disaster in Baku, the team's luck hasn’t turned.

So, how does a crash in the pit lane during the most important practice session of the weekend sound?

Let's set the stage quickly, because some significant situational factors led to this.

FP2 is generally the most important session of the weekend because it takes place around the same time as qualifying and the Grand Prix. This means that conditions are most likely to be as they will be at those times, and so, gathering data in this session is crucial.

However, the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore is like any street circuit in F1 and is prone to red flags. FP2 had multiple, one following a crash from Mercedes' George Russell, and another from Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson.

In practice, the one-hour clock doesn't stop running during a red flag, which means that teams miss out on crucial track time while sitting in their garages.

So, when they're allowed back on track, especially with just over 10 minutes in the session, there was a rush to get to the end of the pit lane.

And that's how accidents happen, just like this one with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc clobbering McLaren's Lando Norris.

That broke Norris' front wing and required the team to push him back to the garage to make sure the suspension was still in working order.

It was, and Norris got back on track for the very end of the session.

That incident was 100% Ferrari's fault, not Leclerc's. The team tells the driver when to leave the garage, and when they get the signal, they go.

In fact, you can see where Leclerc was looking when the accident happened, and he had his eyes down the pit lane, which is what he's supposed to do.

I mean, you want the driver looking at where the car is going, right?

In situations like this, the team is usually penalized by having to pay a fine, since, again, it was their fault, not the drivers'.

And while everyone got going, it was another bad break that McLaren doesn't need right now, especially as more teams are looking competitive.

In fact, even Aston Martin is looking solid with Fernando Alonso topping the charts in FP1 and finishing P4 in the second practice session. Aston Martin has a history of performing pretty well on high-downforce tracks like the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

So, with more teams looking capable of scoring this weekend, the last thing McLaren will have wanted is to miss out on crucial track time.