"There are no Papaya Rules anymore," says championship contender Lando Norris. "We've never had them."

As the controversy over McLaren's institution of team orders at Monza rumbles on, Lando Norris appears to have thrown fuel on the fire by claiming that there are no Papaya Rules.

The Woking team first revealed the concept last year, with Zak Brown claiming that the rule allows the team's drivers to "race each other respectfully, and give each other enough room and don't touch each other".

Despite a number of incidents, and ongoing claims that the team tends to favour Norris over his teammate, either strategically or, as was the case on Sunday, issuing precise instructions, McLaren makes much of the concept, claiming that it is unique to the Woking team and fair to both its drivers and fans alike.

Not so, says Norris.

"There are no Papaya Rules anymore," he tells DAZN. "We've never had them."

Though admitting that there is a document detailing racing protocol between the pair, the Briton insists: "It's not even a page long!

"The important thing is it says 'Fair'," he adds. "And this covers many things, fairness for me and for Oscar.

"I don't choose that these things happen," he insists. "We don't care what's happened in the past, but we do what we think is right for us."

Referring to Sunday's controversy, when Piastri was ordered to hand back second place to his teammate following a botched pit stop, Norris says: "It's not what I want nor what the team wants. It makes things complicated, and complicated the position.

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

Meanwhile, former F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone - never one to involve himself in matters controversial - has criticised McLaren for its actions on Sunday.

"They talk about fairness all the time," he told Blick. "But is it fair for Piastri if he is punished for a mistake made by the team? No.

"You slowly get the feeling that McLaren prefers a world champion named Lando Norris," he added. "Mistakes like missed pit stops, engine failures, and suspension failures may have become less common, but they're part of the sport."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 7 hours ago

"@BigJack - It isn’t about how many seconds a pit stop costs but about the outcome - if a driver who was clearly ahead makes a concession to help the team on the express condition that it won’t change the running order, and a team error does flip the positions, then natural justice demands that the order is restored, because that honours the agreement."

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2. Posted by BigJack, 9 hours ago

"At what point does a bad pit stop trigger this scenario? Two seconds? One second? Two tenths of a second? This was a decision that may come back to haunt McLaren."

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3. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 14 hours ago

"1) Norris had already conceded his normal priority on pit stops, but only on the specific condition it wouldn’t reverse their running order.

2) The delay was caused by the shared pit crew, so it was not a fair reflection of either driver’s performance.

3) By reinstating Norris, McLaren honoured the prior agreement and avoided penalising his cooperation.

4) Leaving the order unchanged would simply have led to equal criticism that the team had disadvantaged Norris. Piastri gained an advantage anyway by being left immediately behind his teammate (much closer than before the stops).

Conclusion: a massive fuss over nothing. The principles of natural justice were applied. "

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4. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 14 hours ago

"The “we’ve never had them” assertion from Norris is patently nonsense, so maybe it is being taken out of
context. Maybe he meant there were no such rules (so far) in 2025? "

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5. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 14 hours ago

"@kenji - why would the FIA need to get involved when team orders are perfectly legal? "

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6. Posted by Wokingchap, 22 hours ago

"As I've said before, all teams ask their drivers to swap. I think all the ott fuss is rooted elswhere."

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7. Posted by Mad Matt, 12/09/2025 8:37

"I'm sorry, I appreciate that we all have different points of view but I still feel it wasn't a big deal even if I would have preferred it not to have happened. I really don't think McLaren somehow prefer Lando over Oscar. I feel it's more a case of the old saying, which I may be mangling a bit, "never ascribe to malice that which can be just as easily explained by incompetence on the part of McLaren" :-)"

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8. Posted by kenji, 12/09/2025 2:46

"With so much consternation and comment re this blatant anti competitive intervention by McLaren I am wondering where the FIA are in all of this? Results are being flagrantly altered and yet they remain silent? For the very first time in a lifetime of F1 I am now seriously questioning whether to 'add or delete' my overall interest. Yes, team orders are extremely difficult to monitor but at the very least there should be questions asked and teams forced to support their in race / on track orders that result in 'odd results'. Talking in code should be banned when it results in race fixing and penalties for breach, where proved, should be draconian after all there is nothing more important to the entire F1 ethos when so called race winners are gifted track positions that are artificially engineered. Race bans should be considered. When Piastri was ordered not to attack Norris for a minimum of three laps to enable Norris to build a gap early on at the Melbourne GP flagged the team's intentions for the season....."

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9. Posted by Laz, 12/09/2025 0:58

"I think that McLaren never expected Oscar to beat their favorite son so early in his career and
are trying to give Lando as much help as possible to get back to the top position again.
I would say that as a Kiwi I am very much a McLaren fan but McLaren is now an Arab team so my ties
are very tenuous now.
"

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10. Posted by Editor, 11/09/2025 22:48

"@ ffracer

Rest assured that the choice of picture is almost always deliberate... sometimes I'm chuckling as I do it."

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11. Posted by ffracer, 11/09/2025 20:05

"The title and, once again, Pitpass' uncanny ability of supplying the perfect picture, I can't stop laughing. Just brilliant.

"

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12. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 11/09/2025 17:54

""There are no Papaya Rules anymore," he tells DAZN. "We've never had them."
No rules "anymore" implies that they had, indeed, existed. Then he states they "never" had them? So which is it, Lando?"

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13. Posted by Superbird70, 11/09/2025 17:27

"Not anymore? but we have a list but it is one page. Small font?
Maybe it is like when I did lines in school, "Lando must win. Lando must win. Lando must win...".
Really sad that McLaren went down this road."

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14. Posted by kenji, 11/09/2025 11:42

"Bernie is spot on. The decision was not fair. It was a travesty. As DC said...race manipulation at its most obvious."

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Norris denies existence of Papaya Rules

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