Goodbye Papaya rules? F1 insider shares update over controversial McLaren approach

A straight faced Zak Brown is flanked by a smiling Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris — Photo: © IMAGO

McLaren

Goodbye Papaya rules? F1 insider shares update over controversial McLaren approach

Is 'Papaya rules' no more?

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Thursday 14 May 2026 22:42

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Has there ever been a phrase in F1 as grating as McLaren's 'Papaya rules'?

A thinly veiled term for 'Lando, don't crash into your team-mate and Oscar, vice versa', McLaren made their 2025 title fight a bigger headache than necessary by dressing up what was essentially just rules of engagement.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, host Jake Humphrey revealed that the term has now been abandoned at McLaren.

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"I think they’ve dropped it now, the team...When I was there [McLaren Technology Centre] the other day someone said, ‘We won't talk about papaya rules anymore’," he explained.

"I think it's become almost like a mockery, do you know what I mean? 'Papaya rules, we now associate it with a period of confusion for everyone so I don't think you'll hear it.”

Don't let marketing get in the way of racing

Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley, who worked closely with Felipe Massa during his career, also gave his take on the so-called 'Papaya rules' using it as an example of marketing getting involved where they shouldn't in an F1 team.

He added: "It's kind of like, don't let the branding experts get in the way of the serious stuff, right? I'm probably going to get hammered for that, but anyway, just don't call it papaya rules. They're just rules of engagement. McLaren has rules of engagement. Force India had them, Williams had them, Ferrari had them.

"I think with rules of engagement, it's very, very simple. If they are clear from the outset when you sit there pre-season and you all agree as a senior management team and a senior group of people including the drivers that this is what's going to happen and this is how we're going to do this. Nobody has a problem.

"I've never been in a team where people… if people have a problem at that stage you probably haven't got very good team players.

"The problem with rules of engagement is when there's 50 per cent of the garage know about the rules of engagement and 50 per cent of the garage don't and then it becomes a big problem."

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F1 McLaren Lando Norris Oscar Piastri