McLaren boss REJECTS claims of driver bias and will persist with controversial papaya rules pitting Lando Norris against Oscar Piastri
McLaren will persist with the controversial papaya rules this F1 season, pitting teammates Lando Norris and Aussie Oscar Piastri against each other once again.
The McLaren papaya rules are the team’s internal racing guidelines that let Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri race each other freely so long as they don’t crash and cost the team points, rather than imposing strict team orders.
They became controversial in 2025 when McLaren told Piastri to hand his second-place finish back to Norris after a slow pit stop at the Italian Grand Prix.
Critics also pointed to other intra-team clashes, including Norris clipping Piastri at the Singapore GP start, that went without intervention and argued the rules were applied inconsistently.
Team boss Zak Brown has confirmed they will remain in place, despite allegations of bias towards Norris, who ultimately claimed last year’s driver’s crown.
‘They continue to be free to race again. We will be strategic and intelligent when situations arise, and there won’t be much change because they were free to race last year,’ he said.
Zak Brown (pictured middle) has again stated McLaren’s papaya rules will be on show this season
Many believe Oscar Piastri (pictured right) was a victim of inter-team ‘bias’ in 2025
The Aussie driver (pictured) finished third in the World Drivers Championship
Brown has also insisted any allegations of bias are ‘ill-informed’.
‘It can be frustrating when some people – and again, this isn’t country specific – are very uninformed and the statements you see are just ridiculous,’ he added.
Meanwhile Aussie motorsport star Oscar Piastri has warned that the new F1 regulations, which have been brought in from the start of 2026, may destroy the sport as a whole.
‘It can be frustrating when some people – and again, this isn’t country specific – are very uninformed and the statements you see are just ridiculous,’ he said.
Piastri has expressed grave concerns surrounding the changes ahead of the opening race of the new regulation era.
The 24-year-old is among a large group of drivers who attempted a standing race start in pre-season testing.
As the seven-strong collective began, four were left stationary on the grid.
‘Starts need to be addressed, because, probably as we’ve all seen, it’s a pretty complicated process now to have a safe start, let alone a competitive one,’ Piastri said.
Piastri, 24, (pictured in his McLaren car) is set to compete in his fourth season at the top of motorsport
F1 veteran Lewis Hamilton (pictured) has taken aim at the sport’s new regulations
Max Verstappen (pictured) has gone nuclear on the new rules as well
The nine-time race winner believes a decision needs to be made on whether drivers should be able to utilise the new straight-line mode to begin a race.
‘[It is] whether we use straight-line mode at the start, because I think a pack of 22 cars with a couple of hundred points less of downforce sounds like a recipe for disaster to me,’ Piastri claimed.
‘So it’s something that we’ll talk about between now and Melbourne, I’m sure.’
The Aussie isn’t the only driver to publicly take aim at the new rules, with 105-time race winner Lewis Hamilton, and four-time world champion Max Verstappen both also speaking out.
Hamilton has claimed elements of the driving style needed to handle the new generation of F1 cars are ‘not what racing is about.’
Verstappen has compared the vehicles and new rules to those seen in the Formula E competition and threatened to quit racing as a result.
Their criticism comes as Piastri has also revealed that starting races isn’t the only challenge drivers are going to have to become accustomed to.
The 24-year-old believes overtaking won’t be simple either, with the Drag Reduction System (DRS) feature being replaced in the off-season.
