McLaren has reportedly decided to end their much-maligned “Papaya Rules.”
The rules became publicly known during the Italian Grand Prix, although the exact specifics are unknown. With them no longer in effect, McLaren will now prioritize Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri.
This has been coming and, honestly, should have happened a while ago. Norris pitted prior to Piastri at Hungary in July and wound up significantly ahead of Piastri thanks to the undercut, causing a challenging scenario where the team pleaded with him to give the position back to Piastri.
Norris finally lifted on the final lap of the race, allowing Piastri to win and take seven points away from Norris.
More recently, Piastri passed Norris on the opening lap in Monza and stayed there the entire race, finishing second while Norris finished third. This took another three points from Norris, making it 10 lost points for McLaren’s top chance at the driver’s championship.
Team orders are generally poorly received in racing, even if they are commonplace, and it’s understandable. Fans want to see drivers giving 100% to get themselves the best possible result, not necessarily the team’s.
But sometimes, team orders make obvious sense. If a driver has a serious chance at winning the driver’s championship and all the publicity that comes with it, the team is obligated to prioritize them.
And if you think that’s just an F1 thing, you don’t seem to watch much racing. Just ask Parker Retzlaff if he had any issues from not pushing Kyle Busch last month. If Kyle Larson makes it to a cut-off race this playoff season needing a point, and Alex Bowman has already been eliminated, Bowman will wave him by.
This situation seems grossly unfair to Piastri, who has been nothing but a team player when the team has told him to be and continues to show flashes of his own ability to be the favored driver. But the reality is that if the shoe is on the other foot next season and Norris emerges with a slow start, Piastri is going to want to be given the priority.
There’s been some talk that Piastri might be the proper number 1 driver at McLaren, at least potentially. Maybe that’s true, but this is not the year to give him the baton outright. Norris should be treated as the number one based on his points position.
The debate is an interesting discussion point, however. I think Norris has been very sloppy despite having the fastest car for the balance of the year now. Every single one of his career poles has now led to his getting passed on the very first lap.
Of course, McLaren has a rich history of team rivalries. Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost essentially defined their legendary careers, with multiple last-race championship moments between the pair.
More recently, in 2007, Fernando Alonso joined and was paired with rookie Lewis Hamilton. The battle between the two went down to the wire, with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen winning the championship by just a point over both drivers. Alonso left the team after that season, but his rivalry with Hamilton has continued to add new chapters 17 years later.
Piastri hasn’t shown that much sloppiness, but he doesn’t have nearly as long a resume so far. With how much better Piastri has become in the last few months, McLaren will be a fascinating inter-team rivalry to watch at the start of next season.
Until then, Norris will have to get the nod. He will need to make up 62 points on Max Verstappen in eight races and three sprints, which isn’t impossible. But it should be 52 points after the 10 that McLaren have thrown away in the last two months, which would have been far more doable.
That’s something to remember if this championship does go down to the wire at Abu Dhabi at the end of the year.
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.