McLaren’s so-called internal Papaya Rules caused uproar more than once over the past year. Now team principal Andrea Stella has made it official: the Papaya Rules — designed to keep the fight between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris “fair” — are here to stay.
Last year, Piastri himself explained the rule like this: “It is literally one rule which is ‘don’t crash into each other'”.
The Principals of Racing Remain
Now Stella told Autosport, “There is nothing in F1 that you put to rest.”
“You need to continuously evolve, continuously review and continuously find a way to do better. “Even when it comes to the racing principles that we apply in the way we go racing at McLaren with Lando and Oscar, while we could confirm even in the review post-season and in the ongoing conversations, we confirm the principles of fairness, equality, sportsmanship, that’s the way we want to go racing because that’s the way we feel better presented.”
But during the 2025 title fight, suspicions flared repeatedly that McLaren was deliberately using those rules to rein in Piastri — all in the name of pushing Lando Norris toward the world championship. One flashpoint came in Monza, when a slow pit stop dropped Norris behind the young Australian.
The message to Piastri was clear: “This is a bit like Hungary last year. We pitted in this order for specific reasons. Please let Lando through. You can then race him freely.” The 24-year-old was left confused by the call, but ultimately complied.
Piastri Learned a Lot About Himself
GettyLando Norris and Oscar Piastri Will Battle it Out Again in 2026.
Now, Oscar Piastri has spoken out on Channel 9.
“It gets talked about a lot. I think behind the scenes, it’s a much smaller discussion and smaller deal than what it gets made out to be,” Piastri said.
“But we’ve got our ways of going racing and it’s constantly evolving. We’ll do a review, and we already have reviewed, you know, do we want to do things exactly the same? Do we want to change things a bit? So yeah, we’ll get a handle on that fully before we go racing again.”
He also added, “But I think for me, the intentions were always in the right place and we’ll do some tweaking if we feel we need it to try and make life a bit easier for ourselves.”
With seven Grand Prix wins to his name, Piastri fell just short of mounting a true title challenge. Still, the McLaren driver sees the season as a major step forward — and plans to use that growth as fuel for a full-on fight in 2026.
“There’s a lot of different ways you can take the 2025 season. But I think for me, I learned a lot about myself both on and off the track,” Piastri said. He added: “I feel like I really developed quite a lot as a person. And I feel more mature. I feel more responsible. I know what I want a bit more now. And also just a sense of pride.”
McLaren is one of the few teams opting to stage its season launch only after the first closed-door pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. They will launch their new car on February, 9 at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Oscar Piastri Speaks Out on Papaya Rules