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Former Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner has criticized McLaren for destroying the spirit of the F1 drivers' championship battle. The Andrea Stella-led team became the center of controversy for the nth time this season at the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend.
Lando Norris bumped teammate Oscar Piastri to gain a place and secure P3 on the opening lap of the race. It looked like a racing incident, and the stewards took no action against Norris. However, because McLaren has been endorsing its 'Papaya Rules', an informal name for its internally set protocols for intra-team driver battles, Piastri felt it wasn't "team-like" of his teammate to bump him and gain a position.
He voiced his concern on the team radio, but the pit wall took no action. It upset Piastri, the drivers' championship leader, who called the decision "not fair." If the team hadn't been talking highly about its 'Papaya Rules' all season, maybe their non-decision about the incident wouldn't have sparked controversy.
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Guenther Steiner addressed the matter on a recent episode of the Red Flags podcast on YouTube. After co-host Matt Elisofon opined that either driver's championship victory will be "tainted" because of the team's controversial handling of its drivers, Steiner replied [14:48 onwards]:
"Absolutely, you are right with that one. Any decision now is made, it's then you go back, 'But why did they, when Lando had the engine failure, you know, why was that not taken into account?' Lando had two pit stop problems and all that stuff. It's becoming a calculation. It's not racing anymore. They took the racing element almost out of it."
The Singapore GP situation caused more than one problem for the Woking-based team. Norris and Piastri's 3-4 result handed McLaren the 2025 F1 constructors' championship with six races remaining in the season, but unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the lap 1 incident and its consequences.
Guenther Steiner urges McLaren to prioritize Oscar Piastri for the drivers' championship
Guenther Steiner also shared some advice for McLaren on how it should conduct its on-track battles, with six races to go and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri separated by only 22 points in the drivers' championship.
When asked by co-host Brian Muller on the aforementioned podcast about what advice Steiner would give to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, the Italian-American former F1 boss said [21:15 onwards]:
"What I would do is I would is say, 'support Oscar to win the championship'. No (you can't let them race) because they are coming close now. They had to race up to now. Now, you need to support him, you need to win the championship. If they continue like this, like Singapore, it's not a done deal. I still think they will win it because they will do what I just said."
Though Piastri and Norris remain the top two contenders for the 2025 F1 drivers' title, reigning champion Max Verstappen isn't very far away in third place. He is 41 points behind Norris in P2 and 63 points behind the leader, Piastri. The tide can change quickly with just one collision between the McLaren drivers, bringing the Red Bull driver in closer contention for the title.
