McLaren ‘potentially over-managed’ papaya rules in Norris v Piastri title fight

McLaren have avoided the “pure visceral, almost hatred” of the Lewis Hamilton versus Fernando Alonso title fight of 2007, but Alex Jacques reckons the team could yet come to regret the “over-managed” fight between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Dominating the opening qualifying session of the championship in Australia, it was evident in March already that McLaren’s MCL39 was the car to beat. And that this season could be a two-horse race for the title between the teammates.

Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri: ‘Over-managed two very capable, proven drivers’

Those predictions appeared to be correct as the McLaren teammates raced out to a huge lead over third-placed Max Verstappen, reaching 104 points at its peak after the Dutch Grand Prix.

Verstappen could go on to bounce back as he ate into McLaren’s advantage with three grand prix wins in four races, shaving his deficit down to 36 points only for momentum to swing in Norris’ favour.

Hitting a rich vein of form, with wins in Mexico and Brazil, the Briton has seized control of the championship with a 24-point lead over Piastri, who not only lost the lead in the standings in Mexico, but is now under threat from Verstappen for second place.

The Red Bull driver trails Piastri by 25 points and could yet upset McLaren’s bid for the 1-2 in the Drivers’ standings.

And McLaren will have only itself to blame.

Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri: McLaren F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

The Woking team has stood by its papaya regulations this season in its bid to ensure fairness and equality between the two drivers. A winning formula for the Constructors’ title, but perhaps not for the Drivers’.

McLaren’s papaya rules have seen the team intervene, notably in Monza when Piastri was ordered to give second place back to Norris after the Briton lost the position because of a tardy pit stop.

But it has also not intervened despite the rule stating, as per CEO Zak Brown, “race each other respectfully, and give each other enough room and don’t touch each other.”

In that situation in Singapore, McLaren sat back when Norris clobbered into Piastri on the opening lap, but later handed him undisclosed consequences. Consequences that were dropped one race later when Piastri, involved in a lap 1 multi-car crash in Austin that was partly his doing, spun into Norris.

McLaren still hold the 1-2 after Sunday’s grand prix at Interlagos, but the championship could yet swing one way or another. It could also swing in a way that McLaren may yet regret.

“It’s not the intensity of the McLaren civil war between Hamilton and Alonso,” F1 commentator Jacques said via James Allen on F1.

“So it’s not had that pure visceral, almost hatred at points between the two contenders.

“And that was almost too good to be true. New contender, current world champion, they let Kimi in at the end on the rails.

“There are parallels that McLaren have potentially overmanaged the situation. I think if they’d continued to have the car advantage, it would have made sense to get the constructors’, manage it until you’ve won the constructors and then leave it alone.

“I think they have probably overstepped when you’ve got drivers on the radio going: ‘I don’t think that was a fair penalty, swap us over. There’s a slow stop, swap them over. Oh, we were wheel-banging at turn three, swap them over’.

“This is motor racing and I think potentially if they were to let Max in, I think their regret would be that they over-managed two very capable, proven drivers.”

The last time McLaren had two drivers fighting for the title was in 2007 when rookie racer Lewis Hamilton took on double World Champion Fernando Alonso for the title.

But amidst qualifying games and cries of favouritism, Spygate came to light that saw McLaren disqualified from the Constructors’ Championship for having confidential Ferrari IP while Hamilton and Alonso finished the season tied on 109 points. Both drivers were one behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

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