With McLaren required to implement its own principled style of team orders in Formula 1 at the Italian Grand Prix, could its stance ultimately break down as the title reaches its business end?
It seems like that with each time a new intra-team situation at McLaren adds to the list of ‘principles’ it stands by, a book in the back of its garage entitled ‘Papaya Rules’ grows a page longer.
The Woking-based squad has to endure further forensic examination in the wake of its Italian Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri being asked to allow team-mate Lando Norris back past after a botched pitstop cost him a guaranteed second place.
Despite Piastri’s compliance with the decision, there appeared to be an audible undercurrent of dismay at the request, but after the race, Piastri said there was a necessity to “protect the culture” of the team.
Norris was quick to defend the decision, too, refuting any notion that it would be setting a precedent for future races. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, however, was totally at odds with Norris’ take, saying a precedent is exactly what it was.
You cannot fault and belittle the McLaren philosophy. A team rich in the heritage of success and winning, and perhaps it clings to that more now that it has refound that winning touch after years of mediocrity and downright failure.
![Lando Norris [McLaren] retires from the Canadian Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri [McLaren] continues](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Oscar-Piastri-Lando-Norris-McLaren-Canada-2025-F1-1536x864-3-1024x576.webp)
How 2024 and Norris’ Montreal madness failed to cause friction at McLaren
Last year, the ‘papaya rules’ phrase was coined after two high-profile instances saw the team prioritise fairness. Norris handed the lead back to Piastri in Hungary after the Aussie had the lead for much of the race. This was followed up by a stark reminder of the team’s willingness to allow both men to race, but without danger of collision, coming also at Monza.
The squeaky-clean ethics were called into question then, but debate dissipated. After all, Norris was only ever harbouring no more than an outside chance of winning the Drivers’ title, and the whole practice seemed to make perfect sense, given that McLaren was in the driving seat for its first Constructors’ crown since 1998. And so it proved vindicated, as winning it was just what they did at the final round in Abu Dhabi.
But now, with Norris and Piastri the only protagonists in this year’s title battle, there appears to be a huge can of worms perched on the McLaren pit wall, and Andrea Stella seems to have the can-opener in his hand.
Earlier in the season, when Norris’ over-ambitious attempt at passing Piastri on the pit straight in Canada ended in his race ending via contact, a chink in the McLaren armour appeared to have been shown. But Stella, ever a shrewd PR operator, quickly sewed this up, aided by Norris’ swift apology, both publicly and in private.
It seems then that McLaren’s principles and the implementation and handling of them have given the impression of an almost unimpenetrable harmony. But is that realistic?
With the laps ticking away at Monza and with Norris and Piastri both on long stints and going for a one-stop strategy. Norris was being called in, but he gave the team the choice to let Piastri pit first, a decision they then made to help Piastri keep the charging Charles Leclerc behind him, to seal a double podium.
When Norris pitted, it seemed to take an age for the left-front tyre to be bolted on properly, and the additional four seconds – an age in pitstops – saw Piastri approach Turn 1 in second, with Norris rejoining.
Then came the call for Piastri to relinquish second, a position he hadn’t held all race, to give Norris what they felt was his rightful place back.
“I mean, we said that a slow pitstop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here,” he told race engineer Tom Stallard.
He quickly changed his tune after the race, as per his “protect the culture” comments, but no real harm done – Norris had only taken three points out of Piastri’s 34-point lead, created with Norris’ Zandvoort retirement.
But Piastri himself acknowledged after winning in the Netherlands that it doesn’t take much for that lead to be reduced. Resting on the laurels of McLaren’s near impeccable reliability record can’t guarantee he will not DNF before the season ends.
Would McLaren implement the same rules in an F1 title showdown?
So, that being the case, let’s examine a not-so-implausible hypothetical scenario McLaren could find itself in.
If the title goes down to the final rounds in Abu Dhabi, and the margin is slim enough that one change of position is enough for one to take the title off the other, what happens then?
Should Norris and Piastri be leading first and second, and that is enough for Norris to win, and he suffers a similar malfunction in the pits, having led the race the whole way, letting Piastri through, what radio call can Piastri expect?
“Erm…Oscar, it’s like Monza again, so do you mind awfully letting Lando through so he can win the race and therefore the title?”
The silence on the other end of the radio would say it all. F1 is, at the end of the day, a selfish sport. When it comes down to the difference between glory and being nice, every driver will opt for the former.
And frankly, can you imagine McLaren even daring to consider making such a call? Of course not.
Dominant teams have often had top drivers both fighting it out for the championship. Williams in 1986 and 87 are good cases in point, but in the latter season, similar to this year, both Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet – two men who suffered no love lost – fought it out for personal supremacy.
The same happened at McLaren in 1988. Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna won all but one Grand Prix between them, and naturally, the team walked away from the year with both titles in its grasp.
Stella admitted after Monza that there may be a “review” of its intentions as the title speeds towards the end, with both men still potentially set for a battle down to the very end.
Will Norris and Piastri’s natural ambition to be World Champion see red mist descend over McLaren’s perfect papaya world, or will the team manage to secure both titles into a similarly-coloured sunset?
READ MORE – McLaren admits Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris title fight may see an end of team sportsmanship
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