ZAK BROWN’S ‘PAPAYA RULES’ REVEAL AFTER NORRIS AND PIASTRI ITALIAN GP BATTLE TRIGGERS INVESTIGATION

As McLaren reassess their “papaya rules” after a fierce first-lap battle between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at Monza, Zak Brown claims neither driver broke said rules.

Norris claimed pole position for the Italian Grand Prix with Piastri making it a McLaren front-row lockout, but with Championship leader Max Verstappen P7 on the grid, opportunity knocked in a major way to take a chunk out of the Red Bull driver’s Championship lead.

Zak Brown: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri followed ‘papaya rules’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

McLaren added the term “papaya rules” to the Formula 1 dictionary at Monza, essentially their rules of engagement for Norris and Piastri, as the duo headed into battle on the opening lap, Piastri muscling his way through at the second chicane to take the lead, with Norris dropping another position to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the immediate aftermath.

Piastri went on to finish P2 and Norris P3, after Leclerc pulled off a one-stop masterclass, leading to plenty of debate over these “papaya rules” and their influence on Norris’ title challenge, after Verstappen’s Championship lead was trimmed to 62 points.

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella confirmed that their “papaya rules” would be reviewed after what went down on Lap 1.

“Both drivers are mathematically [in the title fight], but Lando is obviously in the best position from a numbers point of view,” Stella told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“We are fighting Max Verstappen so I think if we want to give support to one driver, we definitely have to pick the one that is in the best position.

“And also, I think Lando, as you know, he’s been doing very well, like pole position in Zandvoort, pole position here. If anything with Lando, we need to adjust some little racing things which may help him, may help us capitalise on pole position like we had here in Monza.

“I think if we look at this first lap, while we review it together, we might see that there were a couple of things that we could have done more, slightly better.”

But, to that point, Norris and Piastri were perfectly within bounds of the “papaya rules”, according to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown.

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When asked by Speed City Broadcasting if McLaren should have swapped Piastri and Norris around come the end of the race, Brown replied: “No. You know, Lando ran along there, we had some discussion about what we wanted to do there.

“At the end of the day, the papaya rules are race each other, hard but fair, and don’t touch each other. And that’s what they did.

“We’ll take it one race at a time.”

But put to him that surely McLaren must now put all their eggs in one Norris-shaped basket if they are to take the Drivers’ title from Verstappen, Brown replied: “Yeah, there’s some logic behind that. There’s also a lot of racing to go.

“And Oscar’s helped Lando a lot over the course of the year in different ways. Sometimes that’s visible, sometimes that’s not.

“But Andrea and I just take it one race at a time.”

Eight rounds of the F1 2024 campaign remain, with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next up, an event won by Red Bull every year since 2021.

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