Max Verstappen dubbed McLaren’s in-house ‘Papaya Rules’ wording for fair racing between team-mates “nonsense”, and that he would tell his engineer to “shut up” if he heard a similar phrase over the radio.
McLaren made this public at the Italian Grand Prix, after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secured the front row, and after Piastri overtook Norris for the lead, the Briton lost out to challenge his teammate again, although labeled under the term “Papaya”. Standards”.
“Papaya” refers to the color McLaren races in, and it is widely believed that the term simply refers to words like “race cleanly and don’t hit your teammate,” explained team principal Andrea StellaArray. with a little more detail in due course.
He told the media, adding PlanetF1. com, at Monza in September: “Our advice is to compete with papaya rules, where when the car is papaya, like you are a car with any other competitor, but if the car is papaya, even extra car is taken.
“We have to make sure, especially given that the car is so competitive, that we look at the chequered flag and try to conduct the race in synergy between our two drivers, rather than thinking that my main competitor is my teammate.
“We try to stay away from that kind of mentality, because it’s not productive. “
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Red Bull driver Verstappen did not see the same price in putting an internal touch on such requests, believing it was “nonsense” to offer an unnecessary label on such matters.
Because of the attention the word gained after its first use, Verstappen believes the team could have resolved its drivers’ close race in a “much simpler” way.
“That’s an absurd quote,” Verstappen told Dutch broadcaster Viaplay when presented with McLaren’s internal mandate.
“‘Papaya Rules’ – this is absolutely for me.
“If my engineer told me this, I would tell him to shut down immediately. What kind of nonsense is this?
“‘You’re allowed to run,’ that’s good, you know, they might have worked this out easier and better as a team. “
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