After McLaren’s third and fourth-place finish in Singapore on Sunday, they were finally crowned champions of the world.
With the team currently 325 points ahead of second-place Mercedes, McLaren has dominated this season, but what is next?
Oscar Piastri currently tops the drivers’ championship with 336 points, just a mere 22 points ahead of teammate Lando Norris.
Max Verstappen, who has managed to drag the Red Bull car to places no one thought it could achieve, is closing the gap on Norris and is not out of the race yet, sitting on 273 points.
The limelight is definitely on the two McLaren drivers regarding who will be favoured in the championship if it goes down to the wire.
Currently, team principal Zak Brown has enforced a rule within the team, coined the *Papaya Rule, which has fallen into disrepute a couple of times this season.
People argue that McLaren should be prioritising Piastri, especially when Verstappen has gained significant points over the past few races.
The more that it goes on, the more it could become a detriment to the team.
In Singapore, the two came together into turn three on the opening lap, which caused a bit of friction.
Piastri was straight onto the radio after the incident saying: “That was not very team-like” and “are they cool with Lando barging me out the way.”
It might have been a little bit of an audacious move from the Brit; however, there was space down the inside of the Aussie.
From the onboard of Norris, he did go into the back of Verstappen whilst making the move, which did cause the coming together.
This left Piastri, who started third, feeling that it was unfair for Norris to keep the position.
In reality, this is just a racing incident on the opening lap, but in theory, McLaren should’ve swapped the two drivers back if they’re to follow their own rule.
A couple of weeks before in Italy, Norris was ahead of his teammate and so pitted to cover Piastri.
With Norris’ pitstop being slow due to a wheel gun issue, this allowed the Australian to move ahead, but due to the rule set in place, Piastri was told to concede second and allow Norris to overtake.
As we get down to the nitty-gritty stage of the season, there is bound to be more incidents between the two.
If McLaren allow Verstappen to clinch his fifth championship in a row, then there will be a lot of questions needing to be answered.
One thing is for certain: both drivers are becoming increasingly more fed up with this rule, and it could all become rather nasty if they come to blows on track.
Papaya Rule – Allows the two McLaren drivers to race each other as long as they race fair and don’t hit each other.
