The McLaren term ‘papaya rules’ entered F1 lexicon during the Italian Grand Prix, when the team sought to formalise the on-track conduct between their drivers.
It was effectively a team order designed to prevent them from colliding when racing after things got too close between them on the opening lap.
Oscar Piastri pulled off an aggressive move on the inside of his teammate at the Variante della Roggia chicane to take the lead, forcing Lando Norris to concede position to Charles Leclerc.
Norris was in a close battle with Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship, but with just a third place he could only close the gap to 62 points after Monza instead of potentially 52 points with a win.
The battle reignited the discussion over whether team orders were needed at McLaren, however, Verstappen has said how he would react if given the order in a new documentary on Viaplay.
Red Bull has not been afraid to issue team orders in the past, with Sebastian Vettel famously disobeying the ‘Multi 21’ team order at the 2013 Malaysian GP.
Verstappen poked fun at his championship rivals when asked about the term ‘papaya rules’ and described how he would react to the situation.
Verstappen: “This is just a nonsense quote. ‘Papaya Rules’ that’s totally useless to me. If I heard that from my engineer, I’d tell him to just shut up immediately.”
Interviewer: “[You’d say] ‘What do you mean by that?'”
Verstappen: “Yeah exactly, what kind of nonsense is this? ‘You’re allowed to race’ is fine. They could’ve solved this in a way easier a better way as a team.”
While Norris made several costly errors when trying to close the gap to Verstappen, it was clear that support from McLaren earlier would have made things easier.
In the aftermath of the race at Monza, Piastri was tod by McLaren to support Norris although the Australian stopped short of saying he would forfeit a race win.
He would eventually go on to do that during the Brazilian GP sprint race, which Norris repaid at Qatar with a last minute swap of position at the line.
McLaren was told that they should have supported Norris earlier in the campaign, given how crucial every point became in the final races of the season.
