McLaren may have wrapped up the Constructors\u2019 Championship in Singapore, but for Guenther Steiner, the Woking team was the \u201cw***er\u201d of the weekend as its papaya rules eclipsed the triumph.<\/p>\n
Finishing third and fourth at the Marina Bay circuit, McLaren\u2019s 27 points handed it an unassailable lead as it secured the Constructors\u2019 title with six races remaining.<\/p>\n
McLaren told: Either you have rules or you don\u2019t have rules<\/p>\n
But it was the team\u2019s antics on lap 1, not lap 62, that dominated the headlines.<\/p>\n
Fighting for track position on the opening lap, Norris \u201cbarged\u201d into Piastri at Turn 3 with the latter fuming when McLaren<\/a> refused to intervene despite proclamations that the team races with its papaya rules at the forefront.<\/p>\n And that, said Piastri earlier in the year, is \u201cliterally one rule: don\u2019t crash into each other.\u201d<\/p>\n But in that moment when he thought the papaya rules would protect him, McLaren earned Steiner\u2019s \u201cw***er for the Singapore Grand Prix\u201d award for muddling its own principle regulation.<\/p>\n More on McLaren\u2019s Singapore GP antics<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 \u2018That just doesn\u2019t stand up\u2019 \u2013 McLaren driver bias theories debunked<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 The future of McLaren\u2019s papaya rules: Are \u2018consequences\u2019 now out of the window? <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt can only be McLaren,\u201d he told the Red Flags podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, the strange thing is, as much as they won the world championship, we call them w***ers. But it is a little bit conflicting there.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say first of all, a fantastic job, a fantastic car.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what they put on in Singapore, the show, was not a world championship show. I mean, obviously, the car performance was good, the car was good, but with the drivers at some stage \u2013 either you have rules or you don\u2019t have rules.<\/p>\n \u201cPapaya rules, which nobody knows what they are, if they even exist. But you change them around and one day is like this.<\/p>\n \u201cEither you let them race or if you\u2019re getting worried to lose the world championship, you have to make the call, you have to tell one guy, and obviously that one guy is Oscar in the moment because he has got more points than Lando<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry, and it\u2019s nothing against Lando. Oscar put himself in the first I don\u2019t know two-thirds of the races in a better position.<\/p>\n \u201cNow it\u2019s you go and win the world championship because if they lose the drivers\u2019 world championship now, I wouldn\u2019t be happy. And then you have got two unhappy drivers. At least if you favour one, you\u2019ve got only one unhappy driver.\u201d<\/p>\n Put to him that the politics surrounding McLaren right now have \u201ctainted\u201d the title fight, Steiner replied: \u201cAbsolutely, you are right with that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy when Lando had the engine failure, why was that not taken account? Yeah, Lando had a two pit stop problems and all that stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s becoming a calculation. It\u2019s not racing anymore. And they took the racing element almost out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Interestingly Steiner, who has often pinned his colours to Piastri\u2019s mast in this year\u2019s title race, does not believe Norris crossed the line in Singapore.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was at the start. You know, it was hard racing.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, Oscar\u2019s question came because of the past decisions which are taken before. That\u2019s what I say. I mean to unravel all this, what was said and what was done now, it\u2019s a story in itself.<\/p>\n \u201cYou will never get that right, because you can use any argument.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately for them, I still think they will win the world championship, also the drivers world championship, because obviously the manufacturers they won, and congratulations to that one, but it\u2019s like it makes every time you see them it\u2019s a story now about them.\u201d<\/p>\n Steiner reckons this could be just the start of McLaren-on-McLaren contact.<\/p>\n In the \u2018Gas or Brake\u2019 segment of the podcast, Steiner was asked if McLaren teammates would crash again before the end of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say it\u2019s gas, and then they will take the decision to put team rules in,\u201d he said. \u201cGas.\u201d<\/p>\n But he stopped short of calling it a certainty, \u201cIt\u2019s not a certain if they put rules in that one has to win. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not so convinced.\u201d<\/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