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Lando Norris celebrates with his McLaren team after winning the Formula 1 drivers\u2019 championship. Image: Coates \/ XPB Images<\/p>\nIn a bid to be as fair as possible with its two drivers, McLaren nearly squandered the 2025 drivers\u2019 championship to Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
There were multiple incidents across the year that raised questions about fairness and how McLaren treated its drivers, given neither was being given priority.<\/p>\n
Often cited was the team\u2019s so-called \u2018Papaya Rules\u2019 that first came to the fore in 2024.<\/p>\n
It is essentially a catch-all term McLaren adopted to remind its drivers not to crash into each other and race fairly, though it came to be used in the broader picture of their title battle.<\/p>\n
It became something of a sore point for McLaren last year \u2013 and even though Norris suggested there were \u201cno Papaya Rules anymore\u201d, the catchphrase remains.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the new season, McLaren team principal Andre Stella said the team would \u201creaffirm\u201d its commitment to the fundamentals of Papaya Rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike anything that we approach at McLaren, we go through a thorough process of review such that we can see where the opportunities are to improve,\u201d said Stella.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the same for what we call the racing principles and the way we go racing and internal competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got quite a lot of feedback already during the season last year. We had conversations after the season, and we are having conversations pretty much as we speak now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll this has led us to reaffirm fundamentally that the concepts of fairness, integrity, equal opportunities, sportsmanship \u2014 they are all fundamental for the team, for Lando and for Oscar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are reaffirmed. They are confirmed and consolidated, if anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lando Norris celebrates with his McLaren team after winning the Formula 1 drivers\u2019 championship. Image: Coates \/ XPB Images<\/p>\n
Speaking at the team\u2019s season launch, Piastri backed Stella\u2019s view, noting that there had been some \u201cheadaches\u201d caused in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it will look different,\u201d said Piastri.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, as Andrea said, streamlining is a wise decision to make. We probably caused some headaches for ourselves that we didn\u2019t need to at points last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as a general principle and a general kind of way of going racing, it does bring a lot of positives with it. It\u2019s just how do we refine that to try and keep it to just positives, basically.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always a lot more made out about it than actually happens, and there are a lot of hypothetical situations and a lot of people that kind of think without knowing the complete inner workings. A lot of things appear differently to how they actually are.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome tweaks for sure this year, but I think it\u2019s pretty clear that we still want to go racing as much as a team as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Australian led the lion\u2019s share of the season, only to fade with five round remaining.<\/p>\n
Piastri never regained the points lead after losing it in Mexico City, and wound up third behind Verstappen.<\/p>\n
The Australian said he learned a lot from his third season in F1, even if they were brutal lessons.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them were nice lessons to learn, some of them were tougher lessons to learn,\u201d said Piastri.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of performance and the peaks that I had last year, was, firstly, a nice confidence boost and kind of statement for myself that when I get things right and maximise my potential, that I can be a very strong competitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the lessons, in the back half of the year especially were very different in nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably a couple of things in Austin and Mexico from a technical point of view and more of a driving point of view that, let\u2019s say, I hadn\u2019t been challenged on earlier in the season. That was probably one lesson to take forward from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen obviously there was a pretty long string of races where it was pretty eventful for lots of different reasons and I think just taking the lessons out of that and how I can manage those things better, how we as a team can manage those things better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the most important lessons from last year for me, and I feel like I\u2019ve done a lot of good work to try and learn from that, I think the team has as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll make some tweaks, some changes to how we go about things from every aspect.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the main one you\u2019re probably thinking about is how we race each other and how we go racing, but even just from a performance standpoint, a time management standpoint, I think there are a lot of lessons in various areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust constantly evolving and not staying still, I think is probably one of the other big lessons from last year.\u201d<\/p>\n