Lando Norris\u2019 contact with teammate Oscar Piastri in the opening lap of the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix has resulted in countless declarations from motorsport media that now it is finally time for the McLaren duo\u2019s gloves to come off. But the team never should have asked its drivers to wear those gloves in the first place.<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s<\/a> mindset \u2014 that the team comes first, and that priority goes only to the driver with track position in any single race \u2014 has only served to get the team in trouble as the 2025 season winds to a close.<\/p>\n Formula 1: Perfecting the art of egocentric ambition<\/p>\n When the Formula One World Championship of Drivers was introduced back in 1950, it was founded on one simple premise: Who is the greatest driver in the world? The sport has been asking \u2014 and answering \u2014 that question every season for the past 75 years, much to the delight of the imaginations of fans all around the world.<\/p>\n The Formula 1 Constructors\u2019 Championship, then, can be seen as something of an afterthought. Introduced in 1958, this title was designed to reward the hard-fought efforts of the teams that got those high-powered, technically superior racing machines to the track, from the factory-backed might of Mercedes to the down-home efforts of Cooper, the constructors\u2019 title was determined by an amalgamation of just\u00a0one of the constructor\u2019s cars during a grand prix, its best-performing one.<\/p>\n As the sport evolved, the constructors\u2019 championship grew in relevance as new technologies were debuting on a world stage with fury and as the costs of running a successful operation mounted.<\/p>\n A race team, though, is an inert thing, devoid of its own human aspirations of greatness. The employees and personnel who compose that team often shape the way that team is publicly perceived, creating more or less sympathetic stories that fans can follow, but the ultimate effect is akin to rooting for the corporate ambitions of your favorite soda company. You might consider yourself a die-hard Pepsi person, and you might enjoy seeing Pepsi succeed because it means you\u2019re able to try fun new flavors, but it\u2019s highly unlikely that you\u2019ll feel an element of human connection to the brand itself.<\/p>\n More analysis from the Singapore Grand Prix:<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0Singapore GP conclusions: Norris corners Piastri, Russell\u2019s big chance, double Red Bull exit?<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0Singapore GP driver ratings: Resurgent Alonso, Lewis Hamilton in hot water<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s what makes the drivers\u2019 championship in Formula 1 so exhilarating for fans: It enables a level of interpersonal identification and connection that generally doesn\u2019t exist with a team. You can relate to a victor\u2019s celebration or a backmarker\u2019s ambition. You can see slices of life behind the helmet, which adds real stakes to every race.\u00a0That\u2019s what keeps fans flocking to the sport year after year.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s also what makes young racers choose the life of Formula 1 in the first place \u2014 an act that requires a certain renunciation of easily-found pleasures in place of the hard work of building a career and the selfishness that results from putting your desire for a World Championship at the very forefront of your thoughts.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where McLaren went wrong.<\/p>\n Singapore illustrates the dark side of papaya rules<\/p>\n Like a chameleon, McLaren Racing has evolved over the years to best fit Formula 1\u2019s various eras.<\/p>\n Founder Bruce McLaren brought together a group of dedicated mechanics and engineers to introduce his race team to F1 in the 1960s, believing that he had what it took to develop a functioning, championship-capable race team. Put Ron Dennis in charge, though, and you\u2019ve got something new, a team that asked its drivers to act as austere brand representatives.<\/p>\n With Zak Brown taking over as McLaren Racing CEO, and with Andrea Stella serving as the outfit\u2019s Formula 1 team principal, we\u2019ve entered a new era of McLaren \u2014 an era that saw the team become back-to-back constructors\u2019 championship victors just five years after it nearly went bankrupt.<\/p>\n The transformation comes thanks both to an influx of money from impressive sponsorship deals and to a more democratic approach to running a team. McLaren deviated from the standard method of signing one \u201cprimary\u201d driver and one to serve as the less-favored but still competitive points-scorer, instead opting for two extremely talented young racers in the form of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n But then the team asked those young drivers to surrender their individual desire for the team good.<\/p>\n In 2024, it was a genius move. Allowing two talented drivers to find their footing without overbearing interference from the team simultaneously allowed McLaren to enter the constructors\u2019 title conversation and lifted the team to heights it hadn\u2019t seen in years. By 2025, though, that mindset was already out of date.<\/p>\n Heading into 2025, McLaren was a clear favorite, and both of its drivers quickly established themselves as title contenders. When preseason testing and the Australian Grand Prix confirmed their speed, the team needed to scale back its \u201cpapaya rules.\u201d<\/p>\n Piastri has defined \u201cpapaya rules\u201d as, essentially, being just\u00a0one rule: don\u2019t crash into each other. But as we\u2019ve seen throughout the year, that one rule quickly falls apart under the slightest amount of pressure.<\/p>\n It falls apart when McLaren asks Piastri to cede position to Norris. It falls apart when McLaren \u2018reminds\u2019 its drivers of how the team goes racing in the heat of a battle. It falls apart because it operates on an assumption that the team will be able to treat both drivers fairly, and in a sport like Formula 1 where only one driver on a team can win, there is no such thing as equality.<\/p>\n Motorsport media \u2014 myself included \u2014 has been hemming and hawing about papaya rules all year long, and many have deemed the Singapore Grand Prix to be a turning point in the year. With the constructors\u2019 title wrapped up and Norris violating \u2014 however unintentionally \u2014 the single \u2018don\u2019t crash into your teammate\u2019 mantra that defines papaya rules,\u00a0many feel that\u00a0now is the time for the gloves to come off.<\/p>\n To me, that time has long since passed.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t believe that McLaren should have simply sent its drivers out on track frothing at the mouth and ready to wipe one another out at every possibility, because there should be\u00a0some amount of good sense in Formula 1. But I also believe that there\u2019s a dramatic difference between asking your drivers to behave while racing for position, and asking them to allow the team to manipulate the course of the championship regardless of bad luck or missteps.<\/p>\n Now, \u2018manipulate\u2019 is a strong word, and I want to be clear that I do not believe McLaren is operating on some secret mentality where it favors one driver over another, nor do I believe it\u2019s causing race-wide chaos in a bid to benefit itself. But I do believe that attempting to level the scales of justice between both drivers is indeed the kind of manipulation that a dominant team simply does not need, because it opens up one can of worms after another, with the approach to every can feeling like a contradiction of what you did the last time. And I can assure you that both drivers are going to feel aggrieved in the process.<\/p>\n I understand McLaren\u2019s desire to avoid playing favorites, but at no point in 2025 has the team simply allowed its drivers to race one another for position. The rules of engagement have changed every grand prix weekend. Even its most foundational rule \u2014 do not make contact with your teammate \u2014 cracked under the slightest hint of pressure.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the problem with McLaren\u2019s approach in 2025. <\/p>\n By putting the team\u2019s orders and desires at the forefront; by attempting to maintain a \u2018level\u2019 playing field; by negating the affective power of a driver\u2019s championship desire; McLaren has only managed to twist itself into knots of misgiving that mean both drivers will enter these final six races with their \u201cgloves off\u201d and some hefty chips on their shoulders.<\/p>\n If McLaren had let its racers do what they do best \u2014 drive \u2014 then there wouldn\u2019t have been any need for gloves in the first place.<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n