While McLaren enjoys the lead of the constructors’ championship, Norris’ hopes in the drivers’ competition are all but extinguished.
The Brit sits 62 points back from Max Verstappen with three races remaining.
Norris must reduce that margin to 59 points or less at the chequered flag in Vegas simply to keep the title fight alive.
It has led the McLaren driver to all but concede defeat in that fight, and with it much of the need for the squad to employ team orders.
“It’s a tough one,” Norris said of his title hopes heading into this weekend.
“I don’t know chess that well, honestly, but it’s probably check.
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“I can survive. I can put up a fight. That’s what I do, but at some point you kind of know it’s not going to be your way.
“But you never know, so I’m not saying it is over and I won’t say it’s over until it is, but you know it’s very far out of reach at the minute.
“We’ve been performing well, but I need a lot of luck, if anything.
“It’s pretty much like I’ve got to win three races and Max has to not finish three races in a way.
“So, yeah, it’s check. And I’m all alone. And Max has all his pawns ready to attack me.”
It’s a point acknowledged by Piastri too.
The Australian has played the team game when asked, ceding victory in the Sao Paulo Sprint to aid his colleague’s championship cause.
And while he stopped short of saying there would be no team orders going forward, he noted the limited scenarios in which they’d be applicable.
“To be honest, I wasn’t that disappointed with giving that up,” Piastri said of the Sao Paulo Sprint.
“Yeah. I mean, of course, I would have loved to have won the Sprint, but a very different scenario to a grand prix.
“And I think I proved what I wanted to prove in terms of qualifying on pole, and that was just to myself.
“Qualifying on pole for the sprint was, even if I had have won the sprint, qualifying on pole was probably the more satisfying thing for me.
“I knew I did the right things in the sprint, and that’s good for me.”
While unlikely, there is a remote possibility McLaren could employ team orders.
A retirement for Verstappen and a one-two for McLaren has the potential to both drive home a strong advantage in the constructors’ title fight, and turn the drivers’ championship on its head.
“There’s still some, let’s say, very specific scenarios where I might be needed to help out, but for the very large majority of situations, it’s back to how it was,” the Piastri noted.
“You know, the drivers’ championship picture is very slim, and the constructors’ championship is certainly not over for us. It’s certainly not a done deal.
“So that’s definitely the biggest thing.
“If there’s a very specific few scenarios, then maybe I’ll still help out if that’s what I’m asked to do, but I’m going into the weekend trying to trying to win.”
While McLaren has employed team orders to its benefit this season, it has only once had a meaningful outcome on the result in Brazil.
In Hungary, having been given track position to protect his position, Norris was instructed to let Piastri through – which was churlishly adhered to in the final stages of the race.
During the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Norris played a critical role in protected Piastri from an undercut by Sergio Perez, allowing the Australian to take his second career victory.
“We’ve never done something that harmed the team,” Norris reasoned of McLaren’s approach to team orders.
“I feel like people think we do. Everything we’ve done, we’ve just swapped a position.
“It’s not hurt us, so it’s not benefited us. It benefited me because I was in the fight for the championship and that’s the game we also have to play, just as I’ve helped Oscar in a few occasions and helped him win in Baku.
“I did my job there, but I think Andrea [Stella] made it very clear from the beginning that we would never do something that would make the team result worse.
McLaren holds a 36 pint advantage over Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, with Red Bull Racing third, 49 points back.
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