{"id":388261,"date":"2026-01-03T04:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388261\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T04:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:30:10","slug":"if-verstappen-had-become-champion-they-would-have-shot-themselves-in-the-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388261\/","title":{"rendered":"‘If Verstappen had become champion, they would have shot themselves in the foot’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ralf Schumacher<\/a> believes that, starting from the Qatar Grand Prix, McLaren<\/a> should have implemented team orders, giving Lando Norris<\/a> priority over Oscar Piastri<\/a>.Throughout last season, McLaren\u2019s \u201cpapaya rules\u201d were a frequent topic of debate. The team refused to designate a clear lead driver, resulting in Norris and Piastri often taking points off each other in the battle for the championship, a scenario that nearly played into Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s hands.Understanding McLaren\u2019s papaya rules<\/p>\n

Ralf Schumacher told Formule 1 Magazine that McLaren managed their internal rules quite fairly. The German also had no issues with the team orders in Monza and Hungary. However, he added,\u00a0\u201cIn Qatar, I was a bit surprised. If Verstappen had become champion, they would have shot themselves in the foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n

Lando Norris – Photo: RacePictures<\/p>\n

Overall, Schumacher praised McLaren for treating their drivers equally, \u201cBut if I had been team principal \u2014 I admit it \u2014 from Qatar onward I would have favoured Norris over Piastri,\u201d Schumacher concludes.<\/p>\n

In the end \u2014 as we know \u2014 not appointing a lead driver didn\u2019t matter. Norris still took the title, although the margin to Verstappen was small, two points.<\/a>Catch up with GPBlog\u2019s latest Paddock Update<\/p>\n

As the commencement of the 2026 season draws nearer, our Paddock Update is the place to be.<\/p>\n

Follow and subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay up to date with all the happenings as they unfold, ahead of the first on-track action under the new Formula 1<\/a> regulations.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of our Paddock Update here \ud83d\udc47<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ralf Schumacher believes that, starting from the Qatar Grand Prix, McLaren should have implemented team orders, giving Lando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,1737,825,163010,913,2333,30966,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-388261","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-f1-news","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-lando-norris","15":"tag-max-verstappen","16":"tag-max-verstappen-nieuws","17":"tag-mclaren","18":"tag-oscar-piastri","19":"tag-ralf-schumacher","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388261","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=388261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}