Papaya Rules — McLaren’s Quiet War Between Lando & Oscar (and now Max)
When a team builds two cars fast enough to fight for wins, it also builds two egos big enough to clash.
McLaren’s return to the front has created a rare and volatile luxury: two genuine title contenders in one garage.
But in Formula 1, equality is an illusion. Beneath the polished smiles and papaya overalls, an unspoken order has emerged — one that dictates who attacks, who yields, and who gets the spotlight. Within McLaren, those invisible lines have a name.
They call them Papaya Rules.
I. Why Papaya Rules Exist
McLaren’s revival under Zak Brown and Andrea Stella has been one of modern F1’s great success stories — but also one of its most delicate balancing acts.
Two brilliant drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, share identical machinery and a single mission: bring Woking back to championship glory.
So why the quiet hierarchy?
Two alpha drivers: Both are quick enough to lead. Equal cars expose small political imbalances that grow over time.
Mark Webber’s caution: As Piastri’s manager — and a veteran of Red Bull’s “Multi-21” fiasco — Webber is alert to team politics.
Zak Brown’s loyalty: Brown’s personal and professional bond with Norris runs deep. Lando is both McLaren’s marketing face and its emotional anchor.
National narrative: A British team chasing its first title since 2008 naturally leans toward a British champion.
Papaya Rules were never written, never announced — but every mechanic, strategist, and driver understands them instinctively. They’re McLaren’s unwritten constitution. Well that would be the hope. In a perfect world for the team, both drivers would follow this to a tee. And to one driver’s credit, he has in all accounts followed his team’s directive.
II. Hungary 2024 — The Flashpoint (July 21, 2024)
Budapest was supposed to be a celebration: McLaren’s first front-row lockout in years.
Instead, it exposed the team’s first real fracture.
Lando Norris led from pole, but Oscar Piastri’s blistering start put him ahead. When pit stops loomed, McLaren pitted Norris early to protect against Hamilton — a move that undercut Piastri.
Suddenly, the wrong driver led.
The radio told the story: polite urgency from the pit wall, calm defiance from Norris. After several laps, he finally slowed on the main straight, letting Piastri retake the lead and claim his maiden Grand Prix victory.
To the outside world, it looked like teamwork. Inside the garage, it was a warning.
From that day forward, every McLaren strategy call would be judged against Hungary. The term Papaya Rules entered the vocabulary soon after.
III. Monza 2024 — “Race Hard, Don’t Crash” (September 1, 2024)
By the Italian Grand Prix, the tension had become folklore. Over the radio, McLaren engineers invoked the now-famous phrase: “Papaya Rules apply.”
Lando later defined it publicly — “It just means we can race, but don’t hit each other.”
It sounded simple, almost wholesome. Yet in F1, that kind of simplicity hides complexity.
From that moment, Papaya Rules became the guiding principle — a reminder that freedom came with fine print.
IV. Canada 2025 — When It Finally Broke (June 15, 2025)
Montreal was where the theory collided — literally — with reality.
In the final laps, Norris was chasing Russell and Piastri for fourth. A tiny misjudgment under braking saw the papaya nose of Norris’s car slam into the back of his teammate.
Lando’s suspension broke instantly; he retired on the spot. Piastri limped home fourth with a damaged front wing.
Norris took full blame: “That one’s on me.” Team boss Andrea Stella was less forgiving, calling the contact “not acceptable” between teammates.
For the first time, the Papaya Rule — don’t hit your teammate — had been broken.
The cost was ten lost points and the team’s first visible crack in public harmony.
V. Monza 2025 — The Order Reversed (September 7, 2025)
History repeated itself, and this time, deliberately.
Late in the Italian Grand Prix, Norris and Piastri found themselves running second and third behind Verstappen. The team actually allowed Norris to decide Piastri and his pit strategies. Oscar pitted first with a typical McLaren stop, but a lap later a slow stop for Norris had inverted their positions.
The call came over the radio: “Oscar, we need to swap positions — same as Hungary last year.”
Obedient but visibly frustrated, Piastri obliged. What was different between this and Hungary, is Oscar gave the position back relatively quickly, where Lando spent a good number of laps complaining and needing to be convinced to return the position. Oscar asked the valid question of doesnt a slow stop come down to racing?
The team cited the usual reasons — “team interest,” “strategy alignment” — but the optics were unmistakable. The beneficiary of Hungary 2024 had just repaid the favor.
The Papaya Rules ledger was suddenly balanced — but the trust between Oscar and the team was not.
VI. Singapore 2025 — When the Gloves Came Off (October 5, 2025)
If Budapest was the spark and Canada the crack, Singapore was the fire.
At Turn 2 on the opening lap, the two McLarens touched again — Norris’s left-front brushing Piastri’s sidepod. The move unsettled Oscar’s car enough to give the position to Lando. Acceptable but by no means “Clean” racing. But most importantly not Papaya Rules.
Both continued, but the mood was tense. Norris finished third, Piastri fourth, and McLaren clinched the Constructors’ Championship that night.
In the celebrations, the smiles looked tight.
Piastri later remarked that “some things are best discussed internally.”
Translation: the trust was gone.
Net advantage since Hungary 2024: roughly +0 to +3 points toward Norris — but the political swing is far greater.
VIII. Oscar’s Interpretation — The Quiet Professional
Oscar Piastri’s mantra remains simple: race hard, never reckless.
He’s measured where others are emotional, strategic where others react. Since joining McLaren, he’s played the long game — aware that perception can define a career as much as pace.
He’s come close to confrontation but always backed away. Hungary, Zandvoort, Suzuka — he’s left space, even when he didn’t need to.
Meanwhile, Norris races with instinct and flair — sometimes to his own detriment. In Canada, that instinct ended his race entirely.
To outsiders, it’s easy to label Oscar “too quiet.” Inside McLaren, it’s the reason he’s still universally respected. He obeys Papaya Rules — even when they work against him.
IX. Six Races Left — and the Ghost of 2007
The 2025 season has entered its decisive stretch. Oscar still leads, but the Lando and now also Max are closing in fast. There is no question that his mistakes at Baku were entirely his own fault. What happened in Singapore was a turning point in this somewhat polite Championship battle. While Lando did not do anything wrong by convential racing standards; he has yet again went broken the agreed upon rules of racing he has between Oscar and McLaren racing, the so called “Papaya Rules.” But the thing is, there is no real punishment for Lando when he has and continues to break these made up rules by the team; so why would he stop? The difference between the 18 races that happened so far and the 6 that remain is McLaren has now clinched there 10th Contructors Championship. This means it should be all out down to the wire racing between Lando and Oscar. However, if McLaren tries to manage the last 6 races, there is a good chance a certain Red Bull driver could enter the frey… a story so far fetched but not out of the realm of possibilties.
In 2007, Alonso and Hamilton destroyed each other — and McLaren lost both championships on the last race of the season by a single point for both their drivers. Granted that situations involved an entirely different set of characters, but its earily similar. Seventeen years later, the same ingredients simmer again: politics, nationalism, and egos, all wrapped in orange.
No matter who wins, half the fans or all of them will feel robbed.
If Lando takes the crown, many will say McLaren tilted the scales.
If Oscar does, the British press will grieve their homegrown hero.
And if both fall short, history will repeat itself perfectly, and Max gets his 5th in a row.
X. The Price of Papaya
McLaren built their renaissance on transparency, trust, and teamwork.
But Papaya Rules — the attempt to keep both sides happy — may be the very thing that unravels it.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the finest driver pairing McLaren has had since Alonso and Hamilton. Yet like every great partnership, it walks a knife’s edge between legacy and implosion.
The question isn’t whether Papaya Rules exist. Everyone in Woking knows they do. The question is whether McLaren even wants to enforce these so called rules on there driver Lando Norris?
Written October 8th, 2025 by Shane Arun Canekeratne