Unfortunately for McLaren, it wears the blame for dragging out the championship battle \u2014 tremendous though it is for the sport, with a last-race thriller set up for this weekend.<\/p>\n
The Las Vegas double disqualification was embarrassing for its timing but only so detrimental in terms of points. Norris still had a chance to seal the deal in Qatar, and even when Piastri emerged as the strong driver in Lusail, it only increased the odds that McLaren could lock down a one-two title finish by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764530230_348_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
But that all changed just seven laps into the race, when the team infamously missed the cue to pit both cars as ever other driver entered pit lane.<\/p>\n
ABU DHABU FINALE <\/p>\n
The call that could cost McLaren the title \u2014 and how Red Bull plans to exploit it<\/a><\/p>\n Max\u2019s fourth teammate in two seasons as Red Bull swing axe, new driver joins F1<\/a><\/p>\n Team principal Andrea Stella offered up the chance of getting stuck traffic as one explanation, telling F1 TV that Piastri and Norris would have got stuck in the midfield had they pitted but had some other cars stayed out, which would have ruined their races.<\/p>\n Staying out, though, had a similar effect, with both drivers dropping behind other cars at both stops. Norris would have finished behind both Carlos Sainz and Andrea Kimi Antonelli before the latter\u2019s late mistake to cough up fourth place.<\/p>\n CEO Zak Brown suggested that it was less to do with what McLaren\u2019s rivals might do and instead was down to the team\u2019s belief that it would be better to minimise running on the hard tyre, which an early stop wouldn\u2019t allow.<\/p>\n But the hard tyre ended up being a strong compound, and there wasn\u2019t enough degradation for tyre choice to be an influential performance factor anyway.<\/p>\n There was one other factor at play, though.<\/p>\n Though both denied that there was any overarching policy \u2014 no papaya rule \u2014 that prevented both cars from pitting in the pursuit of fairness, Stella did admit that the risk Norris could lose places for having to double-stack was an element of the team\u2019s decision-making.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly for Lando there was the extra consideration of losing additional time because of the double-stacked pit stop,\u201d he said, per ESPN. \u201cIt was in the consideration, but it wasn\u2019t the main reason not to stop both cars.\u201d<\/p>\n Other teams \u2014 and even former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins, now a television pundit \u2014 suggested there could be no other significant reason not to pit Piastri and therefore Norris.<\/p>\n But taking at face value the team\u2019s insistence that the risk of traffic was the compelling argument, it\u2019s hard not to see the irony that its eventual decision did exactly that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought that traffic could have been a problem for both cars,\u201d Stella said. \u201cIn reality that was not the right interpretation of the situation at the time that we should have had.\u201d<\/p>\n PIT TALK PODCAST: McLaren manages to turn an easy Oscar Piastri victory into a Max Verstappen cruise, hurting the Australian\u2019s title campaign and cutting Lando Norris\u2019s lead to 12 points over the Dutchman. With three drivers now in contention, what are the permutations for this weekend\u2019s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?<\/p>\n THE PRECEDENTS<\/p>\n A lot has been made of McLaren\u2019s so-called papaya rules this season, though the team says they boil down to requiring the drivers not to crash into each other.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s an oversimplification given every team has had the same self-evident rule since the dawn of motorsport.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s true the rules are not some multi-volume compendium describing actions and outcomes for every racing eventuality, it\u2019s also true to say they have triggered the team to act in an almost unprecedented way this season as it attempts to control the outcome of the championship.<\/p>\n McLaren\u2019s interventions began at the very first round in Australia.<\/p>\n Piastri, recovering from a slow start that dropped him to third, was comfortably the quicker and more confident McLaren driver in the slippery conditions. After forcing Verstappen into a mistake for second, he shredded his gap to Norris and started sizing up an overtake for the lead of his home race.<\/p>\n But then McLaren told him to hold station \u2014 \u201cI mean, I\u2019m faster, but okay,\u201d he radioed back, clearly bemused \u2014 in a painful abundance of caution given the conditions.<\/p>\n The team changed its mind only a few laps later, but by then the best of Piastri\u2019s tyres had been used, and a small mistake dropped out of striking distance.<\/p>\n McLaren explained later that a combination of the slippery conditions, wearing tyres, impending rain and backmarkers ahead on track triggered the team orders that came across as a lack of faith in the drivers. The paddock wondered at the time whether that level of pedantry would set the tone for the season.<\/p>\n In many ways it did. It\u2019s not just that McLaren retained the same interventionist posture; it\u2019s also that Piastri \u2014 by circumstance rather than by bias, it should be noted \u2014 has ended up on the losing side of the team\u2019s various interferences.<\/p>\n The highest profile incident was the Italian Grand Prix, where McLaren ordered Piastri to hand over second place after a slow pit stop for Norris demoted the Englishman to third.<\/p>\n The call was made on the grounds that Norris was promised he wouldn\u2019t be undercut if he gave Piastri pit priority.<\/p>\n Why was Piastri\u2019s given pit priority? It was another case caution abundance. Had a safety car interrupted the race after Norris had pitted but before Piastri had entered the lane, Piastri would have ended up in second place with a free pit stop. It would have been difficult to order a swap at the safety car restart \u2014 and Piastri would presumably have wanted to chase down Verstappen anyway.<\/p>\n The same level of in-race intervention wasn\u2019t applied in Singapore, where Norris barged Piastri out of the way \u2014 after bouncing off Verstappen\u2019s car \u2014 on the first lap to take third place, a position he held to the finish.<\/p>\n It took until after the fact for McLaren to decide that the move didn\u2019t comply with its racing rules to avoid contact, and Norris was subsequently given an unnamed internal penalty for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n That penalty was almost immediately rescinded, however, when Piastri was judged to have been at fault for causing the first-turn pileup in the Austin sprint that resulted in both McLaren drivers retiring on the spot \u2014 though, as in Singapore, the stewards deemed it a racing incident.<\/p>\n The combination of those two instances left Piastri out of pocket six points relative to Norris \u2014 or 12 points if you were to include the team orders of Monza.<\/p>\n ‘She got it right’ Schmitz celebrated | 01:10<\/p>\n PAPAYA CREEP<\/p>\n Even if Qatar was not an overt expression of some new clause of the papaya rules, it\u2019s difficult not to see it as an extension of the theme.<\/p>\n McLaren\u2019s efforts to maintain internal harmony by constantly arbitrating fairness is on some level laudable, and you must admit that the endeavour has been largely successful. There\u2019s been no blow-up between Norris and Piastri despite the high stakes.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s always a risk in the grey areas, and it\u2019s hard to escape the feeling that McLaren fell foul of that risk in Lusail.<\/p>\n The safety car emerging on lap 7 was not a team error or a case of improper racing outside the scope of the team\u2019s internal rules. It was pure luck \u2014 good luck for Piastri, bad luck for Norris.<\/p>\n It was lucky for Piastri, who was having a standout weekend and who had earnt pit stop priority by having qualified better and by leading the race.<\/p>\n It was bad luck for Norris, who had scotched his final Q3 lap and then lost a place to Verstappen at the start.<\/p>\n Yet the perceived fairness or otherwise of the fortune or misfortune of the situation became a factor in deciding whether McLaren made the obvious call to pit.<\/p>\n Even if it wasn\u2019t the decisive factor, it played a role, and that is an extraordinary creep in the team\u2019s mission to keep things fair.<\/p>\n As debatable as the call in Italy was, there was a logic to it \u2014 the team had made a mistake that adversely affected one of the drivers when the race was all but over. Certainly you can argue that it was simply bad luck for Norris, but there was a rational argument to make, and the team made it.<\/p>\n Other cases have involved justifiable judgement calls about what sort of racing the team does or does not want to see. Again, it\u2019s contentious, but it\u2019s within McLaren\u2019s purview to make those judgements.<\/p>\n To try to balance out the provision of good or bad luck, though, is another matter entirely.<\/p>\n The result of McLaren\u2019s decision appeared to be to gamble \u2014 and lose \u2014 the race victory in part to try to moderate Piastri\u2019s good luck and Norris\u2019s misfortune.<\/p>\n It hurt Piastri more, however, costing him between four and seven points or perhaps more to Norris, depending on your preferred counterfactual.<\/p>\n And if some element in the team does believe that luck is up for debate on the pit wall, what must they think about the Hungarian Grand Prix, which Piastri would have won had Norris not lucked into the quicker strategy after getting a terrible start?<\/p>\n Or what about Silverstone, where the Australian copped a contentious safety car penalty that delivered a 14-point swing in Norris\u2019s favour?<\/p>\n Or what of Imola, where Piastri was given his first pit stop too early and dumped into traffic while Norris got the clearer run?<\/p>\n Of course no-one really thinks these things should be deliberately balanced out to account for what any racing fan will tell you is simply the fortunes of motor racing. To add them up to mount a case for Piastri somehow being the moral title leader would come across as a serious case of sour grapes.<\/p>\n This is sport. Stuff happens.<\/p>\n But in Qatar, even if it played only a minor role in losing the race, McLaren flirted with straying into that sort of murky territory where every moment of good luck should be balanced against bad.<\/p>\n Max capitalises on McLaren mare | 02:44<\/p>\n WHAT\u2019S NEXT FOR PAPAYA RULES?<\/p>\n Despite Stella raising the potential negative consequences for Norris as a factor in the team\u2019s decision-making, both Piastri and Norris doubted the idea that \u2018fairness\u2019 \u2014 whatever its definition \u2014 would have played a role in the strategic howler in Qatar.<\/p>\n Piastri, though clearly gutted, cautioned that his disappointment shouldn\u2019t be overblown.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not a catastrophe,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we made a wrong decision today, I think that\u2019s clear, but it\u2019s not like the world ended.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it hurts at the moment, but with time, things will get better.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been lots of difficult moments \u2014 this year, previous seasons together \u2014 and I feel like you always become stronger through some of these moments, but it all depends on how you deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n McLaren\u2019s end-of-season review was always going to be interesting, with the team romping to the constructors championship and still likely to end up with the drivers title, though Norris will be under immense pressure to seal the deal this weekend in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n But how the team reflects on the way it dealt with the drivers battling for the title could have repercussions for next season and the years beyond, with the assumption being not only that McLaren will continue being a force in Formula 1 but also that Piastri and Norris will continue matching each other on track.<\/p>\n Will it be worth McLaren\u2019s while to continue building increasingly knotty precedents on its papaya rules philosophy?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we need to change that approach,\u201d Piastri insisted. \u201cI think it yields a lot of positives.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, there are some tough moments, but there are also a lot of tough moments if you go in a different direction to that.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we need to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n But the rules could be up for their sternest test this weekend, when the title battle finally comes to a head in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a short journey from Qatar to the season finale in Abu Dhabi, but in the few quiet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[944,2095,12295,13273,1724,64,14017,63,689,31018,182304,4971,182301,31300,21763,18241,21753,182321,181139,34888,16177,182306,182309,800,2057,182317,817,16680,813,816,2105,181143,182319,84708,81096,182308,182297,182298,2328,182299,1737,2623,182314,181151,825,182318,182311,182305,182312,2627,2041,2067,677,182320,102396,182302,25586,182316,36245,88564,2119,2114,163476,16260,182300,78374,182313,182310,25598,24554,35454,942,182315,2812,3595,85,182307,88556,31283,13773,182303,3370,31298,2614,12000],"class_list":["post-324189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-america","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-andrea-stella","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-austin","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bernie-collins","tag-bold-experiment","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-case-caution-abundance","tag-championship-battle","tag-championship-lead","tag-clive-rose","tag-contentious-safety-car","tag-double-stacked-pit-stop","tag-dramatic-final-race","tag-drivers-battling","tag-drivers-title","tag-drivers-constructors-championship","tag-earnt-pit-stop","tag-espn-inc","tag-europe","tag-extraordinary-creep","tag-f1","tag-face-value","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hannah-schmitz","tag-highest-profile-incident","tag-home-race","tag-immense-pressure","tag-in-race-intervention","tag-influential-performance-factor","tag-interventionist-posture","tag-italy","tag-justifiable-judgement-calls","tag-lando-norris","tag-las-vegas","tag-last-race-thriller","tag-max-capitalises","tag-max-verstappen","tag-moral-title-leader","tag-multi-volume-compendium","tag-murky-territory","tag-negative-consequences","tag-nevada","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-papaya-creep","tag-papaya-rules","tag-papaya-rules-philosophy","tag-pit-lane","tag-pit-priority","tag-pit-stop","tag-pit-stop-priority","tag-pit-talk","tag-pit-wall","tag-points-relative","tag-qatar","tag-quiet-moments","tag-race-victory","tag-racing-eventuality","tag-racing-fan","tag-safety-car","tag-safety-car-penalty","tag-season-finale","tag-singapore","tag-slippery-conditions","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-standout-weekend","tag-team-error","tag-team-orders","tag-team-principal","tag-television-pundit","tag-texas","tag-title-battle","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-western-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324189","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=324189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}