{"id":134522,"date":"2025-09-11T05:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134522\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T05:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:38:11","slug":"f1-news-lando-norris-says-mclaren-never-had-papaya-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134522\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Lando Norris says McLaren \u2018never had\u2019 Papaya Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/XPB_1368168_HiRes.jpg\" alt=\"Lando Norris says there are \u2018no Papaya Rules anymore\u2019\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLando Norris has clarified McLaren\u2019s so-called \u2018Papaya Rules\u2019. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n<p>The concept of \u201cPapaya Rules\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/papaya-rules-piastri-lifts-the-lid-on-mclaren-team-orders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">emerged in 2024<\/a> as a shorthand for McLaren\u2019s policy of letting Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri race hard but respectfully, summed up by CEO Zak Brown as: \u201cRace each other respectfully, and give each other enough room and don\u2019t touch each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But after controversy at <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/f1-news-2025-max-verstappen-italian-grand-prix-win-norris-piastri-strategy-controversy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last weekend\u2019s Italian Grand Prix<\/a>, where Piastri was ordered to give back second place to Norris following a slow pit stop for the Briton, questions resurfaced about whether the rules unfairly favour one driver.<\/p>\n<p>Norris, who was booed on the Monza podium, rejected that idea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no Papaya Rules anymore,\u201d he told DAZN. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Norris clarified that while a document detailing rules for racing between the pair existed, it was far less elaborate than some had claimed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not even a page long, actually,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tWin a trip to the Adelaide 500 for you and 4 friends \ud83d\udc49:  <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3VHU6Ww\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> FREE ENTRY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe important thing is it says: Fair. And this covers many things, fairness for me and for Oscar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t choose that these things happen. We don\u2019t care what\u2019s happened in the past, but we do what we think is right for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The flashpoint came when Norris lost time to a wheel nut issue during his stop, dropping behind Piastri.<\/p>\n<p>McLaren then instructed the Australian to swap positions, restoring the order from before the pit stop problem.<\/p>\n<p>Norris defended the move as consistent with pre-agreed team discussions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not what I want nor what the team wants. It makes things complicated, and complicated the positions,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019s what we all as a team, both drivers, decided was the right thing to do if it happened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt had to be corrected. If it had happened to Oscar, we would have done exactly the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Piastri initially questioned the call but ultimately yielded, later saying he <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/f1-news-2025-oscar-piastri-mclaren-team-order-comments-reaction-lando-norris\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">understood the reasoning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think for the long term it was the best decision,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLando has been ahead of me all weekend and I understand the decision and that\u2019s why I did the swap almost immediately. We still have things to discuss, but for me there was no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The outcome meant Norris secured second place, with Piastri third, trimming the 24-year-old\u2019s championship lead to 31 points with eight races remaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has clarified McLaren\u2019s so-called \u2018Papaya Rules\u2019. Image: XPB Images The concept of \u201cPapaya Rules\u201d emerged in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,44231,1737,913,2333,22708,6490,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-134522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-italian-gp","14":"tag-lando-norris","15":"tag-mclaren","16":"tag-oscar-piastri","17":"tag-slot1_f1","18":"tag-slot3","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}