McLaren told to avoid this old tactic in Oscar Piastri vs Lando Norris title scrap

Johnny Herbert has warned McLaren against “getting involved with calls” as its drivers battle for the F1 World Championship.

He wants to see the best driver win the championship — independent of what the team has to say about it.

McLaren advised to let the best driver win the F1 2025 championship

As McLaren began to contend for race wins in 2024, the team was faced with an awkward situation: Should it prioritize Lando Norris, who looked set to potentially challenge Max Verstappen for the World Drivers’ Championship? Or should it let its drivers race it out fair and square?

The team instituted something it called “papaya rules” in response — basically, a mandate that its drivers race each other clean and fair.

The goal of “papaya rules” is less to prioritize one driver over another than it is to encourage its drivers to both compete at their peak. And so far in 2025, the approach has worked; with the exception of Lando Norris’ Canadian Grand Prix wreck, the two drivers have brought out the best in one another — and the team has repeatedly declined to make demands of one driver at the request of the other.

The result? A separation of just eight points and one victory between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

But will McLaren stick to its papaya rules guns as we enter the decisive point of the championship battle?

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Former F1 driver turned pundit Johnny Herbert is all for letting the F1 2025 title battle come naturally down to the wire, without any interference or team orders from McLaren.

In an F1 legends roundtable published by Formula1.com, several former drivers were asked about a variety of topics — including that they expect to see from the remainder of the season.

“I think the main focus will be the upgrades that have come from the majority of the teams, and that’s going to stop because obviously focus shifts to next year,” Herbert said.

“Then it’s down to who doesn’t make mistakes. If we go back to the championship, who’s not going to make those mistakes?”

Mistakes are all part of the natural flow of racing, and we’ve already seen the title momentum swing in different directions based on those mistakes.

Those mistakes are natural — but there’s one specific thing that Herbert is hoping to avoid.

“What I don’t want to see is McLaren getting involved with calls, as we saw a little bit last year,” Herbert said.

“Let the drivers get on with it and the best driver will win. I don’t want any, ‘Turn 1, it’s your race to win’.

“I’m sure it won’t [happen]. It should be a straight head-to-head.”

So far in 2025, McLaren has been great about allowing its drivers to race hard against one another, so long as they’re doing so fairly. Whether or not that carries into the remainder of the season remains to be seen — but Herbert is speaking for plenty of F1 viewers when he points out his wish for clean, interference-free racing.

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