How vague ‘Papaya rules’ led to this awkward photo

The Italian Grand Prix should have been a dominant 1-2 for McLaren.
With comfortably the fastest car on the F1 grid, Monza should’ve been the race where control of the constructors championship was wrestled away from Red Bull for the first time in over two years. Instead, McLaren is still eight points adrift.
It should’ve been the race for Lando Norris, who starting from pole, should have slashed Max Verstappen’s lead in the driver’s standings.
READ MORE: ‘Very special’ chant brings star to tears as history made
READ MORE: ‘Like a big brother’: Demon’s touching tribute after triumph
READ MORE: Slater warns of ‘danger’ in return of young league
Instead, they finished 2-3 – outfoxed by Ferrari on a rare day the Scuderia’s strategy team got it right.
And it was caused by Aussie Oscar Piastri’s brazen move on his teammate on the opening lap.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the post race press conference after the Italian Grand Prix. Getty
The result and subsequent reaction paints a picture of a team that, while clearly boasting the fastest car on the grid, has forgotten how to deal with two cars battling at the front of the field week in, week out. Perhaps as a counter point, it’s worth noting that McLaren’s two drivers were in nappies the last time they were in this position.
And a photo that emerged from the press conference was of two drivers whose relationship is clearly fraying, despite what their social media accounts might suggest.
It was awkward. Their heads either down, or up at the ceiling. They wanted to look anywhere but at each other.
We heard the phrase ‘Papaya rules’ for the first time, although what they actually mean and how they’re applied seem vague.
There are several questions McLaren must answer and act on if Max Verstappen is to be topped:
McLaren’s woes started with Oscar Piastri’s great move on his teammate into the second chicane on the opening lap.
Norris got a poor run out of the first chicane, Piastri got a better one. The Aussie was then able to slip into his teammate’s slipstream, and when Norris made a half-hearted attempt to defend into the second chicane, Piastri just drove around the outside.
From there, Norris’ strategy was compromised. Instead of driving off into the distance, he was left staring at the Ferrari’s rear wing.
Even after the pitstops, it left them behind the eight-ball. They chewed up their tyres quicker than they should’ve, which played into the hands of Ferrari on their one-stop strategy.
Norris led off the start, but was passed by Piastri into the second chicane. NurPhoto via Getty Images
After the race, while the Tifosi celebrated with Leclerc, Norris and Piastri sat on the couch in the media room waiting for the usual post-race press conference. Photos captured a particularly tense atmosphere. Neither was looking at the other, and barely a word was spoken.
A month after the team orders fiasco muddied Piastri’s first F1 win, it was another sure sign the pair’s relationship is becoming strained.
Having emerged from the first pitstop sequence running line-astern, both drivers were reminded of the ‘Papaya rules’. McLaren chief executive Zak Brown would later explain that’s the team’s rules of engagement between their two drivers.
“Papaya rules are it’s your teammate; race him hard, race him clean, don’t touch,” he told Sky Sports F1.
Piastri and Norris looked anywhere but at each other and barely spoke a word to each other. Getty
To the letter of that law, Piastri’s move ticked all of those boxes. He said he thought it was “a good move”.
“I braked late and left plenty of space and we got through unscathed,” he said.
“I knew I had to do that to try and give myself the best chance to win the race, so for me it was good.”
Brown agreed, but acknowledged it would be reviewed.
“It was an aggressive move …. their start was great and that was what we had discussed, kind of get behind the other and fan out to make sure nobody else could get by,” he explained.
Piastri leading Norris during the Austria sprint race. Getty
“I think Lando was probably caught by surprise with that move, thinking let’s just tuck into a one-two and see if we can pull a bit of a gap, so it’s something we’ll discuss internally.
“It was an aggressive pass, so that’s a conversation we’ll have, that was a bit nerve wracking on pit wall but it’s really just respect your teammate.
“Lando got a bad run out of that corner as well so it would have been nice to see them run one-two a bit longer.
“They didn’t touch, it was an aggressive pass but a clean pass.”
Given the loose parameters he was working with, it’s not up for debate that the move was on and that it was a fair.
But what is up for debate is this: should the team have let him go for the move in the first place?
Piastri’s move left his teammate stuck behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Had he or Norris made even a slight error, they both could’ve been sitting on the side of the track in a cloud of dust, their machines resembling canoes.
“He got way too close for comfort. We both easily could’ve been out in that corner if I’d braked one metre later,” Norris said to Sky Sports.
“Obviously if I could rewind, I’d do stuff slightly differently, but it is what it is.”
Team orders are nothing new in F1, and when the Aussie lenses are removed, it made little sense from a team’s perspective to let the two race each other.
After Monza, Verstappen’s lead over Norris in the drivers standings is 62 points. Piastri is 106 points adrift.
With eight races left in the season, Piastri is of course still a mathematical chance to win the championship.
McLaren are clearly the fastest car in F1 right now, and Red Bull seem all at sea in trying to explain its plummeting form, let alone come up with a solution.
Given that, it’s time for McLaren to throw its support behind Norris.
If the Brit had won this race instead of finishing third, the gap to Verstappen would be 51 points. While still a considerable lead, Red Bull were the fourth-fastest car in Monza, having also dropped behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
That Red Bull haven’t won a race since June suggests this is a true reflection of the current pecking order. If Verstappen is battling to make the top five and Norris is winning, they could be neck and neck by the time the F1 circus arrives in Las Vegas.
McLaren boss Zak Brown. Getty
McLaren have traditionally not had No.1 and No.2 drivers – even in the time of Prost and Lauda, Prost and Senna, Hakkinen and Coulthard. They much prefer to let their drivers sort it out on track.
Brown said he’d like that to continue.
“They are both young drivers who want to win, we have always believed in having two number ones, that’s always been McLaren’s way, it can be difficult to manage – we’ve seen it with Senna and Prost,” he said.
“They get along great, they do race each other clean and it’s philosophical – are you a one-car team or a two-car team?
“The easiest thing would have been for Lando to just run away with it, and then not have to put difficult decisions on pit wall but Andrea [Stella, team principal] and I are taking it one race at a time.”
That last bit about Norris being able to run away with it is telling. While it’s true, Monza was the fifth time Norris had failed to win from pole position. Is he capable of driving away from the field like Brown suggested?
McLaren said at the start of the year they hoped to be running towards the front, with the potential for podiums and maybe the odd win.
Their rapid rise up the grid has perhaps caught them by surprise, and left their ‘Papaya rules’ ill-equipped to deal with a genuine fight for the championship.
But while Brown’s preference was to maintain the status quo of having two No.1’s, Stella seems much more prepared to put his eggs in the Norris basket.
“It now looks like the drivers’ championship is definitely a possibility,” he told The Guardian.
Norris leading Piastri during the British Grand Prix. Formula 1 via Getty Images
“We were a little cautious before Monza, but now we can see that McLaren can compete at circuits where last year we were not competitive.
“It looks a little brutal if you ask a driver who is going to win a race he gained on track that you have to swap positions, but we will review all these things for the next races.
“If we come to the conclusion together that swapping is the right thing to do then we will do it. Lando is obviously in the best position from a numbers point of view.
“We are fighting Max Verstappen so I think if we want to give support to one driver, we certainly have to pick the one who is in the best position, and Lando has been doing very well.”
The F1 circus resumes at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Sunday week.