Zak Brown: McLaren remains committed to ‘papaya rules’ for F1 2026
McLaren will continue to use papaya rules in the F1 2026 season.
McLaren will continue to implement ‘papaya rules’ through F1 2026 while allowing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to race one another.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has reaffirmed his team’s commitment to the internal rules of engagement established last year despite allegations of bias and favouritism.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri remain free to race in F1 2026
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McLaren’s ‘papaya’ rules are essentially an internal set of guidelines for how its drivers race each other.
At their heart, they outline that the team’s interests trump the individual drivers, with Zak Brown insisting that position remains unchanged.
The fundamental rules themselves are also set to remain in place, the American revealed, despite allegations of bias in favour of Norris last season.
“We actually talked to the drivers, kind of race by race,” Brown told PlanetF1.com and other media.
“While we do a season review and a season preview, it’s kind of like a racing car: we’re always developing how we go racing on a race by race basis.
“They continue to be free to race again. We will be strategic and intelligent when situations arise, and there won’t be much change because they were free to race last year.”
Team orders became a hot topic in the latter stages of last season amid suggestions the team was deliberately disadvantaging Piastri to aid Norris’ title quest.
Norris won last year’s world championship by three points over Max Verstappen, having trailed Piastri by more than 30 points after the Dutch Grand Prix.
That turnaround began at the Italian Grand Prix, where a slow stop cost Norris track position, only for McLaren to invert its two cars on track.
There were other examples too, such as the management of a clash in Singapore and a poor pit stop call in Qatar that arguably cost Piastri victory.
Asked about the perceived bias – which made its way into Australian politics as the F1 2025 title battle built to a crescendo – Brown rejected such suggestions as “uninformed”.
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“It can be frustrating when some people – and again, this isn’t country specific – are very uninformed and the statements you see are just ridiculous,” he said.
“We just need to keep our head down, stay focused, and the people that matter most to us know that we bring total sporting fairness to our racing team, our papaya fans and our sponsors, family and friends.”
McLaren has repeatedly insisted that its position is aimed at maximising the result on any given weekend, with the drivers’ championship of secondary importance after the constructors’ title – for which it needs both cars scoring well.
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