Attacking Lando Norris for the lead at Monza, Juan Pablo Montoya claims Oscar Piastri “took advantage” of McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ because he knew his team-mate couldn’t afford a crash.
Speaking ahead of the Italian Grand Prix where McLaren locked out the front row of the grid, team principal Andrea Stella reminded his drivers about the team’s “papaya rules”.
‘Oscar Piastri took advantage of what they call ‘papaya rules’…’
Simply put, don’t race your team-mate as hard as you would a rival driver and instead “drive the race in synergy“.
They made a clean getaway off the line and through the first chicane with pole-sitter Norris leading the way, only for Piastri to launch an unexpected attack into the second chicane.
Piastri went around the outside of the Della Roggia chicane with Norris later claiming that if he’d been a metre later on the brakes, the two would’ve collided.
Former F1 driver Montoya reckons Piastri not only used McLaren’s rules to his own advantage but capitalised on his team-mate’s position in the Drivers’ Championship.
“Piastri took advantage of what they call ‘papaya rules’ because he knew that Lando couldn’t battle him and knew that Lando was fighting for the championship and was vulnerable to crashing,” he told AS Colombia.
More on McLaren’s papaya rules
‘The part of Red Bull having problems is clear’
The McLaren team-mates finished the Grand Prix second and third with Piastri ahead of Norris after Ferrari gambled on a one-stop strategy to give Charles Leclerc track position in the final stint.
It paid off as he secured his second win of this season on a day when championship leader Max Verstappen was never in contention and finished P6.
“It was a weekend that gave surprises of what is to come in the year,” assessed Montoya.
“The part of Red Bull having problems is clear. The interesting thing was what Checo said [about Verstappen now also having problems with the car].”
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