‘Both Have Followed The Papaya Rules’ – Zak Brown

Tensions are beginning to rise at McLaren as Championship leader Oscar Piastri saw his lead shrink to just nine points over Lando Norris after Hungary, having led by 22 after Canada. The Australian finished behind Norris on Sunday despite running ahead earlier in the race, with Norris executing a bold one-stop strategy to win.

There was controversy late in the race when Piastri nearly collided with Norris in an aggressive overtaking attempt, triggering a warning from McLaren race engineers.

“I still have to look back to see exactly what happened,” team principal Andrea Stella said afterwards. “But our reminder on the radio was to both drivers.

“The first rule is that they can’t go too aggressively next to each other on the inside, and the second is that they can’t move under braking.

“It’s natural that they want to bring out the best in themselves – but their battles must all take place according to our rules.”

Stella also denied any favouritism toward Norris.

“With the late second stop, we ensured that Oscar still had a fair chance of beating Lando. He was given the largest possible tyre delta and enough laps to make up the deficit,” said the Italian.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown echoed the team’s stance: “Both have followed the Papaya rules.”