McLaren’s position of racing fairly with ‘papaya rules’ may be commendable, but is the team costing itself a real chance at the championships?
After handing victory to Ferrari at the Italian Grand Prix, McLaren finds itself in a difficult position internally. The Woking-based team has the best car and two drivers hungry to win races, although, at the moment, only Lando Norris looks like a strong candidate to fight for the F1 2024 Championship against Max Verstappen.
Does McLaren need to establish a new status quo?
Oscar Piastri showed at Monza that he is not going to let Norris’ World title ambitions stop him from achieving his own targets. The Australian driver, within the framework set by the ‘papaya rules’, attacked his teammate aggressively, but cleanly and with this move he prevented Norris from being in the best position to fight for the win at Monza.
Now, with the Constructors’ Championship on the horizon thanks to having the best car on the grid, why doesn’t McLaren establish a firm status between its two drivers? Why not help and benefit Lando Norris to try and catch Max Verstappen before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
It seems so logical on the face of it, but there are probably a lot of hidden details that escape us. Nico Rosberg recently speculated on the Sky F1 podcast that Oscar Piastri has a contract negotiated with McLaren that would secure him a status equal to that of Lando Norris.
It is likely, if this is true, to be a clause in Piastri’s McLaren contract that Mark Webber, his manager, has influenced to avoid situations like the Multi-21 scenario that he himself experienced with Sebastian Vettel back in his years with Red Bull.
But as we cannot confirm contractual situations, let’s see the objective data and evidence to support McLaren’s decision to keep their current ‘papaya rules’ and not to give Lando Norris a priority status with eight races – and three Sprints – to finish the F1 2024 season and at a distance of 62 points from Max Verstappen.
Oscar Piastri is 44 points behind Lando Norris in the Drivers’ World Championship and 24 points behind Charles Leclerc. It’s not a truly abysmal gap. And just as we still believe that Norris can be World Champion… Piastri also has a mathematical chance to be one. It’s difficult, yes, but it’s not definitive yet.
These figures could be even more remarkable if Piastri had enjoyed better luck in some races: the unexpected Safety Car in Miami and the subsequent contact with Carlos Sainz that left him without points, the qualifying penalty in Austria, the unnecessary extra lap on dry tyres on a wet Silverstone circuit…
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