Lando Norris spills the beans on McLaren’s ‘Papaya Rules’ fuss

Lando Norris addressed the much-talked-about and controversial 'Papaya Rules', a rumoured rule that puts a driver into an advantageous position over another. Speaking about this, Norris cleared the air and stated that there were no such Papaya Rules at McLaren.

The matter of Papaya Rules surfaced once again this week after McLaren ordered Piastri to fall back and give back his position to Norris on Lap 49 of the Italian GP race. The order from the team came after Norris had a slow pit stop on Lap 47, which eradicated his advantage.

To eliminate their mistake during the 5.9-second pit stop, McLaren ordered the drivers to swap, following which the F1 fraternity went wild with speculations regarding the Papaya Rules. However, as per Lando Norris, no such rule exists.

"There are no papaya rules anymore,” Norris told DAZN. “We’ve never had them.

Following this, Norris added,

“It feels like a long time even if it’s short but it’s something outside my control. I can’t do anything about it. It’s not what I want nor what the team wants. It makes things complicated, and complicated the positions."

“But it’s what we all as a team, both drivers decided was the right thing to do if it happened. It had to be corrected. If it had happened to Oscar. we would have done exactly the same," the British driver stated.

As the race ended, Lando Norris finished in P2, behind race winner Max Verstappen. While his teammate, Oscar Piastri, came home in P3, ahead of Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

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Lando Norris' boss once explained Papaya Rules: "Race each other respectfully"

The McLaren CEO, Zak Brown, once explained the principles behind the controversial and much-talked-about Papaya Rules. Explaining the rule, here's what Brown said:

Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, and Zak Brown - Source: Getty

"Race each other respectfully, and give each other enough room and don’t touch each other."

Formula 1 has seen numerous instances where teammates crashed into each other and obliterated the hard work done by the team that weekend. Max Verstappen versus Daniel Ricciardo at the 2018 Azerbaijan GP, or Nico Rosberg versus Lewis Hamilton at the 2016 Spanish GP, are multiple instances.

As a result, one should not be surprised if McLaren, a team that has two championship-worthy drivers, has a rule that stops the drivers from crashing into each other. Currently, the Woking-based team is leading the Constructors' Championship with 617 points. Oscar Piastri is leading the Drivers' Championship with 324 points ahead of his teammate, Lando Norris (293 points), after 16 races and three Sprints.