Good friendships are a rare and beautiful thing on the paddock, especially the one shared by Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. Once teammates, the two now play for the opposing team. Although the minor collision in Brazil ruined Norris’ race against Sainz and the Ferraris, there was never a moment of doubt that the two would be at odds with each other. Now in Qatar, the pair set an exemplar display of conflict resolution.

In conversation with Damon Hill, Sainz and Norris walked around with their golf carts in hand after a late-game of golf. Hill cheekily warns the Brit, “Watch it, don’t get too close to him; you saw what happened last time.” Referring to the turn one collision that ruined Norris‘ race, thus began the explanation of the incident.

Norris and Sainz used their carts as their F1 cars and dramatically re-enacted the events of the race. “I am me and you are you.” began Sainz, which somehow confused Norris anyway. Hill, willing to play along, added, “I’ll be Valtteri Bottas.”

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The former McLaren teammates then ran through the collusion. Norris explained, “You started drifting a little bit to the left…” Sainz butted in, “Okay, this is where the corner goes.” Norris hilariously ran through his thought process: “It’s a little straight. So I’m like, ‘Oh! Carlos is going a bit left, I’ll come left. Carlos then goes straight! So I.. oh no!”

Lessons learned from this very professional and thorough analysis: Lando and Carlos will never change, and golf carts are the easier solution to solving problems in Formula 1.

Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz amid intense P3 battle

The battle between the Red and the Orange faction on the paddock has almost been as intense as the title fight. Where the first half of the season was an impressive run for McLaren, Ferrari seems to be dominating the second half. Much of this boost can be credited to the powerful upgrades being made in the Maranello factory; the Ferrari machine now developed into an absolute beast.

However, there are three more races to go and the fight for being the third-best constructor is far from over. In fact, Sainz believes McLaren had the potential to beat Ferrari in Brazil. Although Ferrari flipped a 3.5 point deficit to a 31.5 advantage over the last two races, the Spaniard believes it will get difficult now.

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Sainz shared his analysis. “We have had a bit the upper hand in terms of pace lately but we’re talking about one-tenth and a half… you really talk about details. What is true in both Mexico and Brazil, if you look into detail, they could have had one car ahead of both Ferraris into Turn 1.”

Sainz refers to the contact with Norris in Brazil- where Norris started ahead of a Ferrari; and also the turn 1 collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas in Mexico. Basically, luck hasn’t been on the Papaya team’s side, but the pace has definitely been there.

Ricciardo shares Sainz’s opinions: The battle isn’t over yet for the two. “It’s not over till it is over, but [Ferrari] have really capitalized the last couple of weekends when obviously both of us had first-lap incidents. And obviously, the lead car had the first-lap incident, which hurt a lot.”

Far from yielding, both teams look ahead for a strong weekend at Losail to push their name ahead. With a lot on the line, who will emerge victorious in this relentless battle?

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