From pole positions to podiums, the 2025 season has been all about the McLaren F1 Team. The team solidified their Constructors’ Championship win at the Singapore Grand Prix, a full six races before the end of the season. Teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have also been at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship standings. They have been each other’s biggest competition for the title.

However, despite their historic season, it’s the use of McLaren’s “papaya rules” (named for the team’s papaya-orange colour) that has been getting the most attention lately. Here is how Team Principal Zac Brown has explained papaya rules:

“Papaya Rules are, you know, it’s your teammate. Race him hard, race him clean, don’t touch… but it’s really just, you know, respect your teammate.”

In a nutshell, papaya rules are McLaren’s way of explaining that teammates need to race cleanly against each other to avoid crashing and keep the team’s collective interests first. On its own, this statement is common sense and is quite standard across Formula One teams. However, it is now apparent that these rules aren’t consistently enforced, leaving questions about the purpose of papaya rules.

So, are papaya rules being applied consistently and fairly for both McLaren drivers? Let’s look at a few examples from race weekends throughout the 2025 season.

British Grand Prix

This year’s race at Silverstone gave us an interesting foreshadowing of how McLaren would apply the papaya rules for the rest of the season.

In the opening laps, Oscar Piastri took the lead from Max Verstappen and led for a significant portion of the race. However, Piastri received a 10-second penalty for breaking during a safety car restart. He served his penalty in the pit lane, allowing Lando to pass right on by. There were a lot of mixed opinions on the penalty. Piastri even expressed his own frustration with the decision, stating over the radio:

I don’t think the penalty before was very fair. I mean, I know it’s a big question but if you don’t think it was fair either, I think we should swap back and race.

No swap was made, and Lando Norris won the British Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri taking second place.

On its own, a request like this from a driver sounds borderline delusional, especially considering the close championship fight between teammates. However, a closer look into how papaya rules have been used this season leaves a lot of question marks on what criteria the team is using to make these decisions.

Italian Grand Prix

During qualifying, Lando Norris was at risk of not making it to the final session after a mistake in Q2. Oscar Piastri had cemented his Q3 position and was instructed by his engineer to maintain a 3-second gap ahead of Norris up until Turn 4. This allows Norris to catch a slipstream and advance to Q3.

Monza is known for being a high-speed circuit. Considering the top 15 drivers were only separated by 0.5 seconds in Q2, these are not surprising team instructions in normal circumstances. However, such a close battle for the driver’s championship between two teammates is rare, and it was not in Piastri’s interests to help his biggest competition move up the grid.

During the race, another interesting decision was made by the team. Piastri was running in P3, behind Lando Norris in P1. He was instructed to make his pit stop first, to cover a potential threat from Charles Leclerc. A lap later, Norris made his pit stop. Although he ended up having a slow stop due to an issue with his front left tyre, meaning he rejoined the track behind his teammate. Piastri was then instructed to give the place back to Norris.

This instruction came as a surprise to many, including other drivers on the track. Although Piastri abided by the instruction, he expressed his confusion over team radio:

“I mean, we said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here. But if you really want me to do it, then I’ll do it.”

Piastri’s candid comments suggest the team has discussed how papaya rules should be used, and that applying these rules to manipulate typical racing circumstances may not have been part of the deal. Ultimately, Lando Norris finished in P2, gaining three points over Oscar Piastri, who finished P3. Piastri expressed acceptance of the decision following the race. However, this situation left many wondering what was special about this circumstance to justify the position swap.

Singapore Grand Prix

For the majority of the season, it has appeared that both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were largely in agreement with the use of papaya rules, despite a few comments to the media and on the radio. However, this reached a boiling point during a dramatic start to the Singapore Grand Prix.

Coming into race day, Piastri qualified in P3 and Norris qualified in P5. At the start of the race, Norris immediately found himself wheel-to-wheel with his teammate. Norris passed Piastri and ultimately moved up to P3, making contact with his teammate in the process and breaking McLaren’s fundamental team rule.

If Piastri was expressing confusion over team rules before, he was downright upset in Singapore, commenting over the radio:

“Yeah, I mean that wasn’t very teamlike, but sure… so, are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?”

“Sorry, that’s not fair. If he has to avoid [Verstappen] by crashing into his teammate, that’s a pretty s— job of avoiding.”

Norris ultimately finished in P3, with his teammate just behind in P4. Similar to the British and Italian Grand Prix, drivers and spectators alike are left wondering how to distinguish between an event deemed part of racing and an event that warrants team action. To add to the controversy of the day, Piastri was notably absent from McLaren’s podium celebrations after securing the Constructors’ Championship in Singapore.

Current Standings

Team orders are not a new concept in Formula 1. Though it’s hard to remember a time when they were applied in such significant moments, especially during a championship battle amongst teammates.

Looking ahead to the final races of the 2025 season, Lando Norris is in the driver’s seat of his championship title. Oscar Piastri is right behind with 24 points. Interestingly, Piastri has gone without a podium finish since Italy, missing crucial opportunities for points in the back half of the season.

Regardless of which driver comes out victorious in the championship fight, the application of McLaren’s team rules during key moments this season will have played a part in the results. Only time will tell whether papaya rules have set a precedent for other teams in seasons to come.