Last Updated on December 1 2025, 9:18 pm

How papaya rules cost McLaren dear and Piastri is abandoned come the end of the race

One ironic soul in the TJ13 family observed of McLaren’s efforts in Qatar, they clearly have shares in Netflix ‘drive to Survive’ Formula One TV series. The calamity in the middle eastern desert is the second week in the row the Woking based team have gifted Red Bull and Max Verstappen the chance to slash the deficit in the drivers’ championship and the reaction from team boss Andrea Stella reveals papaya rules were at the heart of their huge mistake.

With Pirelli mandating no tyre could be run former than 25 laps, the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix was effectively forced into at least a two stop race. Teams strategised into the night on Saturday to determine their responses to various outcomes during the race on Sunday.

Qatar has a 100% record of seeing a safety car deployed and when the F1 gods wrote the script for the Grand Prix, lap 7 was the perfect time for Bern Mylander to take to the track. A coming together between Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly left carbon fibre strewn across the lap at turn two. It was immediately obvious to all that a safety car would be deployed to cover the clear up.

 

 

 

When “papaya rules” went bad

The leaders were less than a quarter of the way around the lap at the time and had plenty of opportunity to debate what to do. Lap 7 was the earliest opportunity for any driver to pit and retain the ability to just two stop and given the limited laps the tyres were allowed to run, the two remaining 25 lap stints were never going to create excessive tyre degradation.

McLaren have lived and died by their ‘papaya rules’ this season which insist the team will be fair to both its drivers when it comes to racing and the championship. For their strategy team any pint stop under a safety car would need to ensure both drivers could be serviced without one being disadvantaged.

The team even switched their drivers around on track, following one being disadvantaged by the pit stop crew taking five seconds to service Lando Norris in Monza. Their extreme ‘meddling’ has been a paddock talking point all year and the issuing ‘consequences’ to Lando Norris for a racing incident in Singapore saw some F1 analysts question the team’s grip on reality.

When the safety car came out on lap 7 in Qatar, Andrea Stella revealed the team strategists didn’t believe they could stack Norris behind Piastri without disadvantaging his position as one of the reasons they failed to pit for fresh rubber.

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McLaren claim decision was for ‘flexibility’

Speaking to Sky F1 he explained: ”Certainly for Lando there was the extra consideration of losing additional time because of the double-stacked pit stop, so it was in the consideration.” Yet it shouldn’t have been in consideration given the gap between the drivers was 4.4 seconds, more than enough to double stack and lose no time. Kimi Antonelli who threatened Norris was almost two seconds behind the McLaren driver.

So Papaya rules did interfere with McLaren’s clear decision making, although their calculations over the double stack were wring anyway. By failing to stop their cars McLaren in effect t gifted 26 seconds time advantage to the field, who all only had to stop one more time whilst the McLaren’s must stop by lap 25 and the latest at lap 50 of 57.

Lando Norris spotted the mistake immediately, asking his engineer why he alone had’t been pitted given the team were keeping Piastri out. This is normal for a race team leading the race, to split the strategies for their two drivers maximising the chance one will come through as correct.

Norris was told by Will Joesph that this meant McLaren had a more flexible approach to strategy, whilst the rest of the teams were locked in with their remaining pit stop set for lap 32.

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Not splitting the strategy boxed McLaren in

Williams team boss James Vowles, who steered strategy for Mercedes during their dominant years was asked liven TV, what he would have done of he had a driver leading the race and the other win third place. “Split the strategy” he replied. This maximises the team’s opportunity to win which ever strategy proved correct, one of the founding principles of the papaya rules – ‘the team comes first.’

So by not splitting the strategy and pitting Norris or Piastri, McLaren in fact reduced their strategic flexibility contrary to what they told Norris and the media following the chequered flag. Of course there was the element of risk that McLaren would deliver a slow stop for one of its drivers and disadvantage either Norris or both of them, but this risk was the same for all the other teams who opted to pit.

McLaren were overoptimistic about the incremental pace they had in particular over Red Bull and Verstappen, although Oscar Piastri’s race pace without the safety car was 18 seconds quicker than Verstappen’s. The Aussie was faced with making up a 26 second deficit due to Max’s free pits top and ate the chequered flag he was just 8 in areas of the world champion.

“I have no words,” a crest fallen Piastri said over team radio on the cool down lap back to the it lane. But worse was to follow for the Aussie driver as he received his trophy for coming second. At the podium celebration a number of the senior McLaren personnel failed to appear as they huddled in the garage to decide how they would handle the media onslaught.

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McLaren abandon Piastri in parc ferme

Photographer Kym Illman was in the Lusail pit lane and explained the McLaren team’s bizarre response to their driver coming second in the Grand Prix. 

Speaking later on his YouTube channel he described the scene in parc ferme immediately after the drivers returned to the pit lane. “Oscar got out of his car, having finished second, threw his gloves in anger and then went looking for his crew, but they weren’t there.

“Why weren’t they there? Well, maybe a couple were, but certainly second [place] would normally warrant a number of your crew being there to help celebrate. Carlos Sainz had almost all of his side of the garage at Parc Ferme to meet him post-race.

“I think it’s almost unforgivable to think that you don’t bring your crew down to celebrate with your driver,” added the photographer.

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Webber gives Brown an “icy stare”

Piastri would have already been feeling “broken” as Martin Brundle described it and even worse Illman believes a rift has opened between the Australian’s entourage and the rest of the McLaren team. Having dashed to the media pen to give his disconsolate driver a comforting hug, Illman describes how Zak Brown returned to the McLren hospitality. 

“On the way back from the media pen, Zak had to walk past Mark Webber, who was dining with Oscar Piastri’s dad, Chris. And I haven’t got a photo of this, but you’ll trust me when I say he gave Zak a very icy look.” Sky F1 during Ted’s notebook filmed Piastri’s manager, dark faced on an extended telephone call, which will only fire up the rumours he is looking for a seat at Ferrari for his young charge.

The only saving grace is that Lando Norris profited from a mistake by Kimi  Antonelli on the penultimate lap of the race. The rookie ran wide allowing Norris into P4.

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Crucial pass for Norris

This crucial means he can now finish in third in Abu Dhabi and claim the drivers’ championship. Had he remained in P5, a win for Verstappen and a third from Norris would see them equal on points but Verstappen retaining his crown due to one more race win.

McLaren may well be the quickest team again in Abu Dhabi, but the margin will not be the one they enjoyed in Qatar. Max has won four of the last five Grand Prix at F1’s season finale.

Ferrari were second and third in the 2024 running of the event in the Emirate, which suits their car design philosophy, so the weekend may not be the walk in the park McLaren hoped it would have been.

 

 

 

F1 drivers trash talk again in Qatar

There’s something about the season’s penultimate race of the season which for the second year in a row is home to some driver trash talk as the championship moves to a close.

Last year a row between George Russell and Max Verstappen exploded, with the Mercedes driver claiming the Dutchman was a bully and had threatened to pu his head into a wall.

Verstappen responded saying he’d never seen a driver beg the stewards to give a fellow competitor a penalty as he alleged of Russell and that he’d lost “all respect” for the British racing driver….. READ MORE