Has McLaren quietly killed ‘papaya rules’ after title fight controversy spiralled?

There is one term that Formula 1 fans will not hear this season after it triggered controversy for McLaren during last year’s title fight, and that’s ‘papaya rules’.

The term ‘papaya rules’ was first uttered at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix when Norris’ race engineer, Will Joseph, told him that he was free to race Piastri after falling behind but within “papaya rules”.

The end of McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’?

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McLaren team boss Andrea Stella explained to PlanetF1.com and other media: “Our recommendation is always racing with the papaya rules, whereby, when the car is papaya, like you are always careful with any other competitor, but if the car is papaya, you take even extra care.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown summed it up simply: “Race each other respectfully, and give each other enough room and don’t touch each other.”

But while McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ began as a catchy phrase, it was twisted into something controversial as the F1 2025 title fight played out.

With Piastri ordered to give Norris second place in Monza followed closely by Norris hitting his teammate in Singapore without in-race consequences, conspiracy theorists declared ‘papaya rules’ only applied if they favoured the Briton. Such was the ire that the Australian parliament even asked whether or not Piastri was being treated fairly by McLaren.

He would go on to lose the title by 13 points to Norris, and was also overhauled by Max Verstappen in the standings.

But while Brown says McLaren will race this season the “way we go racing”, Piastri says the ‘papaya rules’ will “look different”, adding: “We probably caused some headaches for ourselves that we didn’t need to at points last year.”

And the first cure for that headache is to drop the term ‘papaya rules’.

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Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley quipped: “I think all of these, whatever you want to call them, ‘papaya rules’, was like, that’s why you should never let the marketeers get in the way.”

Podcast host Jake Humphrey chipped in on that, saying McLaren had told him that the labelling of the team’s rules of engagement will no longer be in play.

“I think they dropped it now,” he said. “When I say the other day, someone said, ‘we won’t talk about papaya rules anyway’.

“I think it’s become almost like a mockery. Papaya rules! We now associate it with a period of confusion for everyone. Yeah, I don’t think you’ll hear it.”

Smedley added: “So it’s like don’t let the branding experts get in the way like, the serious stuff.

“Like, just don’t call it the papaya rules. They’re just rules of engagement, right?”

The Briton, who worked with Jordan Grand Prix, Ferrari and Williams in Formula 1, says every team has those rules, which are set out between senior management and the drivers, and it only becomes a problem if not everyone understands the playbook.

That’s what he thinks happened at McLaren last season.

“McLaren has rules of engagement, Force India had, Williams had,” he continued. “I think with rules of engagement, it’s very, very simple.

“If they are clear from the outset, when you sit there pre-season, and you all agree, as a senior management team and a senior group of people, including the drivers, that this is what’s going to happen, and this is how we’re going to do this, nobody has a problem.

“I’ve never been in a team where people are… if people have a problem at that stage, you probably haven’t got very good team players.

“The problem with rules of engagement is when there’s 50 per cent of the garage knows about the rules of engagement, and 50 per cent of the garage don’t, and then it becomes a big problem. Then you start to get into blow ups.”

He added: “I wasn’t in the team at the time, but my observation was there was not clarity between everybody in that team. Because I think when there is, what’s the problem, right?”

So far this season, Norris is leading the McLaren battle with 51 points to Piastri’s 43. The teammates are fourth and sixth in the Drivers’ standings.

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