Papaya Problems

2025 constructor championship for McLaren. At what cost?

From lights out, Oscar and Lando were racing each other.

Into turn one, Oscar takes the gap on the right, and Lando takes the gap on the left but takes a lot of curb as he does.

Oscar backs out of the move on Verstappen because Lando is there. Additionally, because Lando is there and Oscar is aware of that, he begins to drift out from the racing line to block Lando. Norris finds himself in an awkward V shape going into turn three, where he ideally doesn't want to be (you want to be closer to the right to get straighter for the braking zone so the tires have more grip).

Lando finally gets straight, but he has Verstappen in front of him going slower into the corner. Norris doesn't want to slow because he is racing Oscar, but Verstappen is unaware that this race is pursuing behind him, so he continues the slow pace into the corner.

Norris is unable to slow down enough because of the race with Oscar and Verstappen's pace.

Then contact is made with the back of Max, which only gives him a snap of oversteer. Due to the contact with Max, there is then contact with Oscar, which nearly sends Oscar into the barrier.

Oscar immediately expresses his displeasure over the radio with the message to his race engineer:

"Yeah, I mean that wasn't very team-like, but sure," he stated.

Moments later, he continued to vent his frustration:

"So, are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way?"

He asked his race engineer, but it seemed as if he was addressing McLaren as a whole with "we". Here I believe Oscar was looking for the place to be given back or for Lando to be reprimanded for his aggressive overtake, which Oscar believed to be against the rules.

But ultimately, the stewards deemed it a racing incident, and Lando was given no penalty, nor was he asked to swap positions by McLaren.

When the race concluded Oscar finished P4 and Lando P3. When Zac Brown attempted to communicate with Oscar over his radio in order to celebrate McLaren winning the constructor. "Oscar, back to back champions, good race, tough race. Thank you uh-" Zac browns messaged followed before he was cut off by Piastri unplugging his radio.

Papaya Rules

Papaya rules is a set of rules created by McLaren that essentially mean Oscar and Lando are free to race as long as they don't crash into each other.

Oscar and Lando have both been team players, following the rules as well as listening to team instructions. For example:

• Monza 2025: Lando was ahead of Oscar, so he got the first pit stop where McLaren wanted Lando to come out in front of Oscar. However, due to a slow pit stop, that did not happen, and Lando came out of the pits behind Oscar. McLaren told Piastri to swap places with Lando. Initially, Piastri questioned the order, but he complied and returned the position to Norris.

• Hungary 2024: Oscar had been the race leader for a good portion of the Grand Prix, but during the second round of pit stops, Lando was pitted first to cover off Charles Leclerc. This made Norris gain the lead, following Oscar's slow pit stop. McLaren instructed Norris to give back the position; at first, he was very reluctant, which caused a delay, but with three laps to go, Norris obliged and gave Piastri his place back for his maiden win.

Is Oscar's frustration warranted, or is it simply a part of racing?