Lando Norris has poured cold water on the hype around McLaren’s so-called Papaya Rules, insisting the much-discussed code of conduct between him and teammate Oscar Piastri is more myth than rulebook.
The chatter reignited after a tense moment at the Italian Grand Prix, when Piastri was instructed to hand back second place to Norris following a slow pit stop by the latter’s crews.
Fans booed Norris on the Monza podium, with critics claiming McLaren were bending the rules to protect their lead driver. But Norris was quick to set the record straight.
“There are no Papaya Rules anymore,” he told DAZN. “We’ve never had them.”
Rules That Fit on a Post-It
Despite the team’s racing etiquette being branded as something elaborate, Norris insisted it’s nothing more than a one-page guideline.
“It’s not even a page long, actually,” he explained. “The important thing is it says: Fair. And this covers many things, fairness for me and for Oscar.
“I don’t choose that these things happen. We don’t care what’s happened in the past, but we do what we think is right for us.”
©McLaren
That clarity, he argued, applied directly to the Monza flashpoint. After a sticky wheel nut slowed his stop, Norris rejoined behind Piastri. McLaren then asked Piastri to swap positions, restoring the pre-pit order.
“It’s not what I want nor what the team wants. It makes things complicated, and complicated the positions,” Norris admitted.
“But it’s what we all as a team, both drivers, decided was the right thing to do if it happened. It had to be corrected. If it had happened to Oscar, we would have done exactly the same.”
Piastri Backs the Call
Piastri initially sounded frustrated over team radio but later backed the logic of the switch, stressing that long-term fairness outweighed the immediate sting.
“I think for the long term it was the best decision,” he explained after the race.
“Lando has been ahead of me all weekend and I understand the decision and that’s why I did the swap almost immediately. We still have things to discuss, but for me there was no problem.”
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The result left Norris with second place and Piastri in third, closing the Briton’s gap in the championship fight to 31 points with eight rounds still to run.
With both drivers publicly toeing the same line, McLaren’s “rules” look less like papaya-coloured shackles and more like a handshake deal: keep it fair, keep it clean, and keep the team moving forward.
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