McLaren has reportedly decided to end their much-maligned “Papaya Rules.”
The rules became publicly known during the Italian Grand Prix, although the exact specifics are unknown. With them no longer in effect, McLaren will now prioritize Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri.
This has been coming and, honestly, should have happened a while ago. Norris pitted prior to Piastri at Hungary in July and wound up significantly ahead of Piastri thanks to the undercut, causing a challenging scenario where the team pleaded with him to give the position back to Piastri.
Norris finally lifted on the final lap of the race, allowing Piastri to win and take seven points away from Norris.
More recently, Piastri passed Norris on the opening lap in Monza and stayed there the entire race, finishing second while Norris finished third. This took another three points from Norris, making it 10 lost points for McLaren’s top chance at the driver’s championship.
Team orders are generally poorly received in racing, even if they are commonplace, and it’s understandable. Fans want to see drivers giving 100% to get themselves the best possible result, not necessarily the team’s.
But sometimes, team orders make obvious sense. If a driver has a serious chance at winning the driver’s championship and all the publicity that comes with it, the team is obligated to prioritize them.
And if you think that’s just an F1 thing, you don’t seem to watch much racing. Just ask Parker Retzlaff if he had any issues from not pushing Kyle Busch last month. If Kyle Larson makes it to a cut-off race this playoff season needing a point, and Alex Bowman has already been eliminated, Bowman will wave him by.
This situation seems grossly unfair to Piastri, who has been nothing but a team player when the team has told him to be and continues to show flashes of his own ability to be the favored driver. But the reality is that if the shoe is on the other foot next season and Norris emerges with a slow start, Piastri is going to want to be given the priority.
There’s been some talk that Piastri might be the proper number 1 driver at McLaren, at…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …