How ‘Papaya' politics may decide Piastri's F1 title hopes

Sydney Morning Herald

2 days ago

McLaren have a conundrum: When, and how, will they decide which of the drivers of their 600-horsepower beasts will take top billing at season's end?
Just nine points separate Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the drivers' championship. Their next-closest competitor, Max Verstappen, is 88 points behind Norris.
The last time Australia had an F1 world champion was when Williams driver Alan Jones won the championship in 1980, and Piastri has every chance of breaking that drought after the season resumes in the Netherlands on August 29.
With 14 races left this year, the obstacle in Piastri's way is his McLaren teammate Norris, who is also seeking a maiden championship.
Not since 2021 – when Red Bull's Verstappen claimed his first drivers' championship with a final lap overtake on Lewis Hamilton at the last race of the season – have we seen the title fight quite like this.
McLaren are 299 points ahead of their closest competitor, Red Bull, so the constructors' championship is all but wrapped up (unless team Papaya implodes between now and December). Still, for the first time in three years, the drivers' championship could come down to the final race of the year – Abu Dhabi.
State of play
McLaren's conundrum is one every team would like to have: the best car with two drivers who consistently stand on the podium.
It's a complication, nonetheless, because team principal Zak Brown has a choice in front of him: does the team back Norris, the driver who's been with McLaren for six years? Or Piastri, who joined in 2024 but has outperformed his teammate so far.
Brown and McLaren have been reluctant to choose a favourite child. Instead, they've implemented what they call 'Papaya rules', a team strategy that allows the two drivers to race each other, and which is reviewed and discussed after qualifying on Saturday ahead of Sunday's race.
It sounds simple, but it's difficult to respect the rules when you're in the heat of battle.
The last time the title fight was this close between teammates was when Mercedes' duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton battled for the 2016 championship. Once childhood friends during kart racing, the pair fell out into fierce rivalry, leading to frequent clashes and crashes on track. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff threatened suspension for any driver who caused a future collision.
McLaren has so far avoided any major unpleasantries, excluding Piastri and Norris' run-in at the Canadian Grand Prix, but the two are on a collision course, and as the season finale in Abu Dhabi draws closer, it feels inevitable tensions will start to boil over.
Brown conceded as much when talking to reporters at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of the mid-season break.
'There's competitiveness brewing. As the championship builds, I'm sure that tension will grow,' Brown said.
'We're fully anticipating them swapping paint again at some point. I'm very confident it won't be deliberate, which is where you then get into the problems. They will have racing incidents. Here at McLaren, we know that, and they know that, so we're not afraid of that.
'I'm positive they're never going to run each other off the track, and that's where you get into bad blood. So they're free to race ... there are rules around our racing, which is respect your teammate. They know that.'
From a spin-out at his home race in March to championship leader, Piastri's season has come a long way since the season began in Melbourne.
And it's the progress and consistency since March that has many, including himself, believing he could be world champion in 2025.
Champagne, spin-outs and podiums: The highs and lows of Piastri's season so far
For nearly 44 laps of the Australian Grand Prix, it looked like Piastri was going to become the first Australian to nab a podium finish at Albert Park.
He'd navigated multiple crashes, retirements and safety cars and was hunting his teammate for the lead. But near the end of lap 44, both McLaren cars slid off a wet track, and while Norris was able to recover, Piastri was on the grass.
He later said he 'tried to push a bit too much', and by the time he got the car back on the track, he'd dropped to 16th.
While the opening race of 2025 is one Piastri would rather forget, it remains a significant moment in his career, and the Australian fought his way back to finish ninth, overtaking Hamilton on the last lap.
Miami Grand Prix
Four-time world champion Verstappen is a robust defender of track position and a sensational wheel-to-wheel racer. Overtaking the Dutchman requires the perfect moment and the perfect move, and that's what Piastri did in Florida.
On the opening lap, Norris attempted to overtake the pole-sitting Verstappen for the lead, but the Red Bull champion got his elbows out and defended, forcing the McLaren down to sixth place.
Piastri, who qualified fourth, quickly carved his way through the field, passed Norris and stuck to Verstappen like glue, patiently waiting for the Red Bull star to make a mistake.
When Verstappen ran wide on lap 14, Piastri pounced and cut back on the inside, taking charge of the race and cruising to a win.
Canadian Grand Prix
Earlier in the season, McLaren boss Brown said it was a matter of 'when, not if' Piastri and Norris would collide. That moment finally arrived in Montreal on lap 67 of the 70-lap Canadian Grand Prix.
In a move of pure desperation, Norris made contact with the rear of Piastri's car, and then the wall, and while Piastri went on to finish fourth, Norris' race was over, resulting in his first did not finish (DNF) of the season.
Norris admitted full responsibility for his botched overtake, while Piastri said he did not think there was 'any bad intentions involved'.
British Grand Prix
Cool, calm and collected: they're the three words that describe (most of) Piastri's season so far.
However, there was a crack in composure – the first time in a long time – at Silverstone.
Against a gloomy backdrop and in rain-soaked conditions, Piastri was set for victory before receiving a 10-second time penalty for 'erratic braking' behind the safety car.
The penalty pushed Piastri to second behind Norris, who proceeded to win his home grand prix.
'I'm not going to say much. I'll get myself in trouble,' Piastri said in his post-race debrief. 'Apparently you can't brake behind the safety car any more.'
Hungarian Grand Prix
If you want to see how close the 2025 championship battle is, watch the final two minutes of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
In the dying seconds of the penultimate lap, Piastri lunged his McLaren towards Norris near turn one in an attempt to regain the lead.
He locked up and Norris – who miraculously kept his tyres alive on a one-stop strategy – powered through to win the race by 0.698 seconds.
The nail-biting chase was one of the closest races so far of the season and a fitting way to head to the break with the championship in the balance.
How does the rest of the season play out?
Using last year's results as a gauge for how this season ends hints that Norris is winning the 2025 championship.
Even looking at the state of play before the break, Norris had all the momentum – he won three of the final four races – but Piastri isn't the same driver he was in 2024. He's better, and he knows it.
Piastri said ahead of the break: 'Last year, I felt like I had some weekends that were very strong and felt like I had enough to win races on my good days. But there were a lot of average and sometimes bad days in between.
'This year has been full of a lot more good days. I have improved as a driver, but I think I've been able to get closer to what I think I'm capable of more often.
'That's been the biggest thing. It's not come from one specific area. It's come from looking at lots of different things. Being able to execute what I think is my best more and more often, that's been the difference.'
With how things are going, the championship is likely to come down to the final race, and Brown is preparing his team for the ecstasy and agony of that moment.
'Eventually, we'll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go 'right, one of you is going to win and it's going to be the best day of your life. One of you is going to lose. How do you want us to handle that?',' Brown said.
Simply, the 2025 world champion will be the fastest driver who makes the fewest mistakes.
In a piece former driver Scott Mansell penned earlier this year, he said it was too early to tell who would be the one celebrating at the end of 2025, but Piastri certainly had the mental fortitude to do it.
'[Piastri's] trajectory suggests that he's still improving, still finding pace, still refining his craft – and that's what makes his challenge so credible and potentially so dangerous for his competitor,' Mansell said.
'He definitely has the pace needed to win an F1 championship – that much is clear in both qualifying and race trim. Whether he'll achieve this in 2025 remains to be seen.'