McLaren to review rules of engagement after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clash

McLaren will review its rules of engagement, previously known as its papaya rules, after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clashed at the Italian Grand Prix.

McLaren’s papaya regulations made headlines last season as Norris and Piastri fought for the world title, with Norris coming out on top after Piastri’s momentum suffered a blow with team orders that favoured Norris at the Italian Grand Prix.

McLaren to review Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri racing rules

Piastri dropped to third in the standings, overtaken by Norris and then Max Verstappen, which led to conspiracies that McLaren’s papaya regulations favoured Norris.

McLaren, realising it had put pressure on itself by giving its rules of engagement a name, moved away from publicly branding its approach as the ‘papaya rules’.

Piastri revealed the rules would “look different”, adding: “We probably caused some headaches for ourselves that we didn’t need to at points last year.”

That may have blunted the headlines, but the on-track rivalry remains.

Norris and Piastri raced wheel-to-wheel at the Italian Grand Prix where their late-race battle saw Norris have to take to the grass to avoid contact with his teammate.

Lining up an overtake into Turn 4 on the penultimate lap, Piastri defended hard, which led to Norris putting two wheels on the grass.

“He pushed me off,” complained the reigning world champion. “That was very dangerous. He moved back at me after I went to the inside.”

Piastri’s race engineer Tom Stallard told the Australian to keep it “clean”.

Norris pulled off a final-lap pass to beat his teammate to fourth place, the two were separated by less than two-tenths of a second at the chequered flag.

McLaren, having allowed its drivers the freedom to race, will review the rules of engagement ahead of the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring.

“The two cars were on the same tyres, same tyre age, same car, so we thought there was no need to interfere with the normal development of the race,” Stella told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media.

“We let them race. We think that was the right thing to do.

“The moment in which Lando put the wheels on the grass, he came on the radio, he made a comment like he pushed me off or something, but actually when we reviewed it, I think we saw that the episode is much more benign than what it might have looked in the heat of the moment.

“So, I think it’s something that certainly we will review, and we will review in the context of this kind of racing, because I think you are right in highlighting that as soon as you fight with each other, then you may lose time.

“So, was there a better way for McLaren to give a fight to [Max] Verstappen? We will review. It wasn’t obvious to us at the pit wall, and we thought that it was more important to let them race according to our philosophy of going racing.”

Norris subsequently backtracked on his claim that Piastri’s defence at Monza was “dangerous”, saying it was a comment made in the heat of the moment.

Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri: McLaren F1 2026 scores

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“No, it was okay,” he said of his late-race battle with his teammate.

“I just need to review things, but it’s just the perception of when you’re in the car, when someone’s opening the gap a bit and then goes straight.

“You get that perception when you’re going at 200 miles per hour. So that’s all.

“I think what he did was fair.

“It’s just when you’re in the moment, and you’re half on the grass, you don’t realise how quickly things can end pretty badly.

“Just in the heat of the moment, but it was fine, and it was a good battle. A good result from a tough race.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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