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“There are no Papaya Rules anymore,” says championship contender Lando Norris. “We’ve never had them.”
As the controversy over McLaren’s institution of team orders at Monza rumbles on, Lando Norris appears to have thrown fuel on the fire by claiming that there are no Papaya Rules.
The Woking team first revealed the concept last year, with Zak Brown claiming that the rule allows the team’s drivers to “race each other respectfully, and give each other enough room and don’t touch each other”.
Despite a number of incidents, and ongoing claims that the team tends to favour Norris over his teammate, either strategically or, as was the case on Sunday, issuing precise instructions, McLaren makes much of the concept, claiming that it is unique to the Woking team and fair to both its drivers and fans alike.
Not so, says Norris.
“There are no Papaya Rules anymore,” he tells DAZN. “We’ve never had them.”
Though admitting that there is a document detailing racing protocol between the pair, the Briton insists: “It’s not even a page long!
“The important thing is it says ‘Fair’,” he adds. “And this covers many things, fairness for me and for Oscar.
“I don’t choose that these things happen,” he insists. “We don’t care what’s happened in the past, but we do what we think is right for us.”
Referring to Sunday’s controversy, when Piastri was ordered to hand back second place to his teammate following a botched pit stop, Norris says: “It’s not what I want nor what the team wants. It makes things complicated, and complicated the position.
“But it’s what we all as a team, both drivers, decided was the right thing to do if it happened,” he adds. “It had to be corrected. If it had happened to Oscar, we would have done exactly the same.”
Meanwhile, former F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone – never one to involve himself in matters controversial – has criticised McLaren for its actions on Sunday.
“They talk about fairness all the time,” he told Blick. “But is it fair for Piastri if he is punished for a mistake made by the team? No.
“You slowly get the feeling that McLaren prefers a world champion named Lando Norris,” he added. “Mistakes like missed pit stops, engine failures, and suspension failures may have become less common, but they’re part of the sport.”
