McLaren F1 star Oscar Piastri hints at change to controversial 'papaya rules'

F1 News & Gossip

Oscar Piastri hints at change to controversial McLaren 'papaya rules'

McLaren should be looking to change their F1 approach in 2026

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Saturday 17 January 2026 21:56

McLaren F1 star Oscar Piastri has hinted there could still be changes made to the team's controversial papaya rules in 2026.

The 24-year-old lost out on his chance to pick up his first world championship last season after team-mate Lando Norris clinched the title at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

But it was four-time champion Max Verstappen who finished behind the Brit in the standings, not Piastri, and the Aussie driver rounded off the season in third place, 13 points behind the lead.

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Ahead of the extensive pre-season testing calendar for 2026, Piastri opened up on how it felt to come so close to the title in 2025, admitting on The Today Show Australia that he had learned plenty of lessons, 'both good and bad' last season.

Piastri confirms papaya rules to be 'tweaked if needed'

Despite leading the drivers' championship for 15 rounds across last year's campaign, Piastri admitted there were many moments he would rather not relive, largely thanks to McLaren's controversial team orders.

As a concept, team orders are nothing new in F1, but McLaren's approach in particular triggered backlash from fans at the 2025 Italian GP when Piastri was instructed to give a place back to Norris.

After heading into the pits on lap 47 at Monza, Norris suffered a painfully slow pit stop, allowing Piastri to gain track position on his team-mate. When the Brit came out of the pits behind Piastri, the Aussie was instructed to give the place back despite the error being no fault of his own. McLaren lost the race win to Verstappen and Norris and Piastri crossed the line in P2 and P3 respectively.

During his recent interview, Piastri attempted to talk down the impact that 'papaya rules' had on him last year, whilst also revealing that they were still being debated within the team.

“It gets talked about a lot, I think, behind the scenes. It's a much, much smaller discussion and smaller deal than what it gets made out to be. But yeah, we've got our ways of going racing and it's constantly evolving," Piastri said, implying that we may not have seen the last of the team order debate at McLaren.

"We'll do a review and we already have reviewed. Do we want to do things exactly the same? Do we want to change things a bit? So yeah, we'll get a handle on that fully before we go racing again."

"I think for me the intentions were always in the right place and we'll do some tweaking if we feel we need it to try and make life a bit easier for ourselves,” he concluded.

F1 McLaren Oscar Piastri