Who slept worst last night: Nikola Tsolov
Here’s the problem: there is one topic you simply cannot avoid when talking about the Singapore weekend. On Saturday’s sprint, Lando Norris committed one of the ultimate cardinal sins in motorsport: he crashed into his team-mate.
To make matters worse, it was on the final lap of the race. In a sprint. While battling for fourth and fifth place — and a grand total of one point.
There really wasn’t much for Norris to gain — other than satisfying his own ego in his duel with Oscar Piastri, an ego he shouldn’t even need to satisfy in 2026. The Briton is the reigning world champion and holds the upper hand over his team-mate in every sporting metric this season.
Yet something seemed to snap during this latest triple-header. The trouble is Norris set himself up for a fall in Baku, and over the following two races, he plummeted right off that ledge.
After being wiped out of the race by Franco Colapinto during a safety car restart in Baku, the McLaren driver chose surprisingly harsh words. In his eyes, the Argentine’s lock-up was not worthy of Formula 1 — and called for a race ban for the Alpine driver.
Now, as a world champion, you are entitled to that opinion. The awkward part is when you essentially have to take yourself out of circulation over the next two weekends if you stick to your own logic.
First came the near-rear-ending in Sepang, where he almost slammed into the back of Piastri behind the safety car and ended up in the gravel trap — an embarrassing blunder following his comments the previous week. But during the Singapore sprint, Norris didn’t miss his team-mate’s car and effectively did what he felt Colapinto should have been banned for.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
Immediately afterwards, however, there wasn’t a trace of humility or insight to be found: “I have the right to do that,” he snapped when commenting on the collision after the sprint. “It was a big gap, so I went for it.”
The comments from team principal Andrea Stella, however, must have stung. Stella stated he wasn’t surprised by the incident — merely “disappointed”.
You probably remember it from your own childhood: when your mum was angry with you, it wasn’t pleasant, but you could live with it. What really hurt was when she was disappointed.
Norris likely didn’t have the most restful night ahead of race day. You could hear it in his comments on Sunday, where he sounded thoroughly chastened: “It’s pretty straightforward. I can’t attempt what I did,” he said, striking a completely different chord compared to Saturday.
“I should never have attempted in the first place, even if the move was on. I’ve got to think more of the team I represent than myself. It was a mistake on my part, and I let down the team. I’ve also apologised to all of them, and I owe them all an apology and will do better next time.”
They say acknowledging the problem is the first step to recovery. But that brings us to the issue with this column. The title reads: “Who slept worst last night.”
Norris may have had a rough night on Saturday, but come Sunday, he had nothing to reproach himself for. Taking fourth place was a solid result, and he proved to be a team player by asking multiple times if he could support Piastri. He likely pushed the sprint to the back of his mind on Sunday evening, at least until McLaren brings it up again ahead of Austin.
Nikola Tsolov, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
So the “official” protagonist for this column is Nikola Tsolov.
And yes, he wasn’t even racing but the Singapore weekend likely left him feeling very uneasy.
Tsolov is a 19-year-old Bulgarian who belongs to the Red Bull junior squad and is currently fighting for the Formula 2 title in his first full season, though he recently surrendered the championship lead to Ferrari junior Rafael Camara in Baku.
Thanks to his performances – with six victories this season, the most of any driver – he is naturally considered a candidate for an F1 promotion. The problem is that right now Red Bull has zero justification for altering its line-up.
Red Bull itself is officially locked in for 2027 with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. And given Arvid Lindblad‘s consistent performances (even if Singapore was a weaker weekend for him), they aren’t going to pull him out of the Racing Bulls seat after just one year.
Realistically, only Liam Lawson‘s seat would be up for debate – and Lawson happens to be in absolute peak form right now, giving Red Bull no leverage whatsoever to drop him in favour of Tsolov.
Ideally, the Bulgarian would be hoping for Lawson to stumble, but Singapore was the exact opposite. Lawson was the best driver behind the top four teams in every single relevant session, bagged a top result with fifth in the sprint, and backed it up with seventh in the grand prix.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
The New Zealander has already racked up 75 points this season, leading the midfield pack by a healthy margin – admittedly with the aid of a three-race outing for Red Bull when Hadjar was injured. For comparison, his closest pursuer, Pierre Gasly, sits on 41 points. On what grounds could Red Bull possibly show him the door?
To make matters worse, Tsolov’s own form has plateaued recently. After a brilliant summer featuring three consecutive victories, his podium in Baku was his first in nine races. His comfortable championship lead has vanished. Instead, the Bulgarian is now the hunter heading into the final two Formula 2 weekends.
Until his next race in Qatar (or is it, Stefano?), Lawson has four more opportunities to showcase his skills. Tsolov, meanwhile, can only sit back and watch his main rival for an F1 seat deliver one strong result after another.
And when he does it twice in a single weekend, it hurts twice as much.
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