Consequences for McLaren’s refusal to drop ‘papaya rules’ – McLaren were true to their word in not backing one or other of their drivers for the 2025 Formula One drivers’ championship and will retain their now infamous ‘papaya rules’ for 2026.

Speaking at the FIA’s end of season prize gala, team CEO Zak Brown spoke of his pride in the team’s drivers and how they kept it fair to the final chequered flag of the year. In terms of the rules which allow their drivers to race freely – if that’s not an oxymoron – Brown was explicit stating that retaining the papaya code book is “exactly what we plan to do.” in F1 2026.

Yet the rules were not without controversy amongst fans and F1 observers alike. The basic premise is Piastri and Norris are free to race, but must not crash into each other and that the goals of the team come first.

 

 

 

Piastri millimetres from disaster in Austria

However, in Canada Lando Norris was frustrated after following his team mate for lap after lap and without an instruction from the team for the Australian to ceded the place given Lando was the quicker car at the time.

In a red mist, Norris attempted a move along the pit straight but the gap was never really there. He crashed into the back of Piastri and was out of the race. Oscar continued on his way to claim P4, whilst Lando lost out on a certain ten points in the inter McLaren team rivalry.

This opened the gap between the pair to the widest it had been all season as Lando Norris was now 22 points behind Piastri. Next time out in Austria the boot was on the other foot, with Norris leading the racer and Piastri looking the quicker car.

The Aussie made a late braking attempt into turn four, locked up and missed his team mate by millimetres and a crash that would have certainly finished one or both of the drivers races. “Feedback from the pit wall, the manoeuvre in Turn Four with the lock up was too marginal. We can’t do that again,” reported the Aussies race engineer over team radio.

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McLaren manipulates Monza result

Yet the biggie came in Monza, after Piastri had dominated the week before in Zandvoort and Lando had suffered a mechanical DNF. Whilst ahead of his team mate and chasing Max Verstappen, Norris was asked if he would insist on claiming his right to the first pit stop given he was ahead of his team mate.

With Charles Leclerc close to undercutting Pistri, Lando offered the team to pit his team mate first. Oscar duly came out just ahead of Leclerc as planned. However, come Lando’s pitstop which would have been the one Piastri should have taken, a wheel gun failure cost Norris almost five seconds of time stationary.

He emerged behind his team mate and McLaren knowing the full story instructed Piastri to allow his team mate through, something Oscar protested. “We discussed this. Isn’t a slow pitstop part of racing?” He enquired. The response was firm and Piastri gave way to his team mate.

Yet Oscar felt down by McLaren for engineering what they felt was the right thing to do, whilst in Silverstone they had refused his request to do something similar. Piastri had been given a ten second time penalty for excessive braking whilst leading the pack at a safety car restart, something his engineer told him the team felt was “harsh.”

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Piastri requests team reverse the cars in Silverstone

Piastri responded: ”I don’t think the penalty before was very fair. I know it’s a big question, but if you don’t think it was fair either, I think we should swap back and race.” The Aussie was fobbed off  with some kind of “we’ll discuss it” kind of repose. This time McLaren didn’t intervene to restore the fair order of things under papaya rules.

As the pressure of the season run in increased with Max Verstappen looming large as the hunter, McLaren faced further ‘papaya rules’ inquisitions at the night race in Singapore. At the start, Norris saw his team mate off line into the turn 2 turn three section. He made an opportunistic move around the outside which became the inside, but he touched a dawdling Verstappen in front which tipped him into his team mate.

Nether McLaren car was damaged and Norris was allowed to retain the place going on to claim third behind Russell and Verstappen. The stewards called the moment a “racing incident” issuing no punishment for Lando’s opportunistic effort. Yet come the following weekend in Austin, Texas, McLaren revealed due to ‘papaya rules’ and the Singapore moment, Norris would now suffer “consequences” for the rest of the season.

Clearly the racing gods did not approve of McLaren playing judge and jury over and above the stewards and come the Sprint, Piastri made a disastrous mistake which took both him and Norris out of the race. The lack of running in the Sprint also cost McLaren in terms of data they needed for the Grand Prix setup.

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Papaya fairness almost cost McLaren the drivers’ championship

However, papaya rules almost turned the championship on its head and nearly handed victory to Max Verstappen. In Qatar an early safety car saw every team take a pitstop for fresh rubber. Caught in the dilemma of whether this would handicap Norris who was behind Piastri at the time, the team blinked and left both drivers out.

They feared double stacking wold allow Verstappen to sneak ahead of Norris, whereas the painful mistake meant he had a free 26 seconds of race time and emerged behind the McLaren’s on fresh rubber. Verstappen went on to win the race and the team left the Losail circuit with a lot of red faces.

Crucially Lando Norris made a last lap move on Mercedes Kimi Antonelli for fourth place. Thos two points eventually decided the championship in his favour.

Piastri has spoken of the Monza moment which was the start of a poor run for the Australian. Prior to the weekend in Italy Oscar held a 34 point lead over his team mate and most paddock observers were penciling him in as the 2025 champion driver. Yet the following weekend in Baku Piastri described as his “worst weekend in racing.”

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Piastri admits Monza affected his mental approach

The Aussie crashed in practice and qualifying and then went on to face start from the back of the grid come the Grand Prix on Sunday. Reflecting on the start of his troubles, Piastri later observed: “Obviously, the race before that was Monza, which I didn’t feel was a particularly great weekend from my own performance and there was obviously what happened with the pitstops.” Piastri told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast. Turning to Baku he continued, “I think there was kind of some things in the lead-up, let’s say, that were maybe not the most helpful and then things that happened on the weekend.”

A poor weekend followed in Singapore and in Austin and come Mexico Lando Norris had overturned his team mates lead and was now ahead b y a single point.

As the season drew to a close and Piastri was a long shot for the title behind Norris and Verstappen, paddock rumours emerged that Oscar was unhappy with his McLaren team. As the chequered flag fell in Abu Dhabi and exuberant Zak Brown celebrated with Lando whilst appearing to ignore his other driver, something picked up on by Nico Rosberg who described Brown as “insensitive.”

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Piastri demands “full fairness” for 2026

Given McLaren’s decision to engineer the on track order of the cars in Monza but not elsewhere, there was a whiff of favouritism to their driver of seven years. Yet Piastri issued a kind of warning in his post race interviews, where he chose to focus on the issues of “fairness” for 2026.

“I’m expecting, obviously, full fairness from the team and equality going forward,” he said when speaking to Sky F1. Maybe McLaren did favour Norris who joined the team when they were rank bottom and felt his journey and loyalty to the team should be repaid.

Australian TV emphasised the issue post the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, as the F1 presenter concluded: “Let’s hope Oscar can do it next year… if McLaren don’t work against him.”

Whatever happens, papaya rules are here to stay and should cause more controversy when McLaren return in 2026. However, if Piastri again feels the team are favouring Norris through their interpretations of their code of conduct, there will be further unrest within the Woking based F1 team.

 

 

 

Wolff dramatic claim over F1 2026 hybrids

With the Formula One drivers title finally decided in Abu Dhabi, by just the two extra points Lando Norris picked up late in the Qatar Grand Prix, all the attention is turning towards the excitement of a huge new technical set of regulations for the cars of the future.

For many F1 fans and pundits alike, retaining the V6 hybrid architecture was m mistake by the FIA. It appeared they even admitted this when calling for a big sit down last season in Bahrain. There it was proposed that the electrical element be cut from its current 50% of the total output, but with more than one manufacturer objecting to this late switch, the plan was dropped.

Of course the FIA retain to right to impose this on a number of grounds should we see the farce of a car running out of power half way along a particularly long straight and the fix would be a software driven approach reading the hardware can stay as designed… READ MORE