Trouble In Paradise: Tension between the drivers dampens McLaren’s Constructors Championship victory?
Updated: May 2
Following a less than ideal Saturday Qualifying at the Marina Bay circuit, all things seem to come to a head on race day between the two McLaren drivers, both in contention for the Drivers Championship this year. With “Papaya Rules,” will the fights between the drivers cause fallouts in the McLaren team?
Following a collision between Norris and Piastri, where Norris gets caught by surprise from Max Verstappen slowing into turn three, clipping his own front wing and subsequently bumping into Piastri, causing him to pass his teammate, where he then finished the race P3. Piastri angrily comments on this move by Norris on the radio, this was the following dialogue between him and his engineer:
“Yeah I mean, that wasn’t very team-like but sure.”
“So are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way, or…”
“Oscar we are looking at it, let me get back to you.”
…
“As a team we can see Lando had to avoid Verstappen so we won’t take any action during the race. We can review further afterwards.”
“Mate that’s not fair. I’m sorry that’s not fair.”
“Oscar, we’ll have the opportunity to review together afterwards, focus on this race mate, we can still have a good result here.”
“Yeah, but if he has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate, then that’s a pretty s*** job of avoiding.”
From this dialogue, Piastri’s frustrations are made very clear, however the team see little issue with the incident, much to his dismay. Drawing to the end of the race, Zak Brown spoke with Piastri about the Constructor’s Championship win, where he subsequently disconnects from the radio in the car, cutting Brown off in his victory speech.
What arguably makes it worse is that, despite being the Championship leader, Oscar Piastri was left out, or missing, from the celebrations that followed McLaren being crowned the 2025 Constructors Champions. While under the FIA regulations that state drivers must report to media if they finish under podium, many believe that Piastri was not willing to, or did not want to participate in the celebrations. On the other hand, McLaren could have waited for Piastri to come and celebrate on the podium with them. Saying this, celebrations did take place back at the McLaren garage, where the two drivers are seen shaking hands, embracing and smiling.
This is not the first time the “papaya rules” have caused controversy between not only the team and the drivers but also those who are looking in from an outsiders perspective. According to Piastri, the one rule is that the drivers would not crash into one another, but arguably that is unavoidable when both drivers are competing for the Driver’s Championship, with equally dominant machinery. This is the third notable incident this year that people have questioned McLaren’s strategy with their drivers.
The Hungarian Grand Prix in August sparked questions with the one stop strategy presented by McLaren to Norris, and the differing attempt to “undercut” Leclerc with Piastri. With Piastri leading the Championship, and competing with his teammate, the call from the team ignited some questions about favouritism with the drivers. This is backed up later by the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in September, where a slow stop from Norris dropped him to third place after running second for most of the race. Following this, Piastri was asked to swap positions with Norris, again highlighting potential adversity between the team and their drivers. As a driver fighting for the title, Piastri appears to be put on the back foot more often than not by McLaren, why is that?
This, however, is very typical behaviour from McLaren in terms of getting their strategy with their drivers wrong. Going back to the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri’s win was shrouded in controversy, taking away from the thrill of his first place podium. With Norris taking the second pit stop during the race, undercutting his teammate, it meant he sat in first place drawing to the closing laps of the Grand Prix. This was done to prevent Hamilton threatening the 1-2 from McLaren, and after the team promised that Norris would give the position back, he did not give the place back until there were only three laps left of the race.
During these incidents, both drivers were respectively competing for a Championship title. Norris was attempting to get his second win in Formula 1, battling against Max Verstappen. Could you argue that this race is what jeopardised his chances at winning the Championship in 2024, despite not being able to capitalise in Silverstone and Austria? Will these issues in the current year lead to a loss of a championship for Piastri?
McLaren had the right intention with creating the “papaya rules,” however the past two years have shown time and time again the inconsistencies in terms of fair racing for the drivers and potentially causing harm to their own Championship campaigns. There is a line between allowing competitiveness between drivers and micromanaging to the point that racing seems manufactured and unnatural.
We have seen a longstanding history of driver rivalry that has indeed gone too far, and with McLaren wanting to do damage control this much, will it negatively impact the relationship with the drivers and the team? Will these “small” issues have large repercussions in the long term for Oscar Piastri? Can McLaren make up for their strategic errors while continue to maintain neutrality to both their drivers while they compete for the Driver’s Championship?
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