McLaren papaya rules ‘hurting’ Lando Norris with ‘heated discussions’ predicted

McLaren driver Lando Norris is closing the gap in the Drivers’ Championship.

Lando Norris said Oscar Piastri got “way too close for comfort” on the first lap at Monza, which Nico Rosberg believes will prompt “heated discussions” within McLaren.

Norris defended the lead of the Italian Grand Prix into the opening chicane on the first lap, but McLaren team-mate Piastri swept around the outside in a move that gave him the lead for the majority of proceedings, with Norris subsequently falling to third as he readjusted his course.

Lando Norris: Oscar Piastri ‘too close for comfort’ in lap 1 move at Monza

Come the chequered flag, both McLaren drivers were beaten by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, whose one-stop strategy triumphed over the McLaren duo, who both stopped twice in the race as they finished second and third respectively.

Norris was pragmatic after the race, congratulating Piastri and Leclerc for finishing ahead, though offered his perspective on the first-lap move his team-mate made.

“I mean, a little bit,” Norris told Sky Sports F1 when asked if he was ‘surprised’ by Piastri’s move on the first lap.

“Obviously I would have just braked a bit later if I needed to, but [there was] a big gap behind and between us two cars, there’s no risk.

“I feel like he got way too close for comfort. We both easily could have been out in that corner if I brake one metre later. Obviously if I could rewind, I would do stuff slightly differently, but it is what it is. Oscar drove a good race, and so did Charles.”

Given that Norris dropped not just one but two places as a result of the move, he revealed the impact it ended up having on his strategy, with Leclerc extending his final stint to turn his race into a one-stop strategy where both McLaren drivers stopped twice.

When asked if his team were ‘risk averse’ when it came to decisions needing to be made for the World Championship fight, Norris replied: “I mean, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

“We always review things. Of course, today was not our day, and we didn’t get things correct, but I wouldn’t say we got them wrong today either.

“I certainly couldn’t have done a one-stop. Being the second car is always a lot tougher than being the first car – which is a fair thing, that’s racing – but to try and keep up with Oscar in the dirty air means I had to use a lot more tyre, and using a lot more tyre made me box earlier.

“So that’s just the price I paid for not being in the in the clean air, but we both clearly suffered a lot more than the Ferrari, and not a lot we could do at the time.

“I feel like we still maximised today, we just didn’t quite have what Ferrari had.”

More key reaction from the Italian Grand Prix at Monza

 Italian GP conclusions: Time for Norris to toughen up and Verstappen to resist temptation

 Italian GP driver ratings: Rare score for Charles Leclerc as Franco Colapinto springs surprise

Nico Rosberg: ‘Papaya rules’ are ‘definitely hurting Lando Norris’

In response to Norris’ words, 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg, on punditry duties with Sky, invoked the phrase ‘papaya rules’, which cropped up during the race on Sunday.

Norris was told he was free to race Piastri for the lead within ‘papaya rules’ – within the rules of engagement prescribed by the team – but after hearing the Briton’s take on the first-lap move, the former Mercedes driver thinks that could have led to “heated discussions” within McLaren after the race.

“’Papaya rules’ are race each other, but race cleanly, and it was interesting to hear from Lando that he thought Oscar went over the limit there in that battle in Turn 4, which was a new thing for me now,” Rosberg said.

“I didn’t realise that he didn’t think it was fair and square, so that will be some heated discussions certainly afterwards in the McLaren motorhome between the two, and it’s very difficult to manage because it’s such a fine line.

“You write those rules down, but then to really see, did Oscar really go over the limit in terms of the papaya rules or not? It’s always so difficult.

“I say that he just did a great job there, Oscar, because he left the space and everything, he just did a fantastic job.”

Given Norris is now 62 points behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship with eight races to go and Piastri sits 44 points further behind, questions are increasing about whether McLaren will back Norris in a potential push against the Red Bull driver.

Piastri has made it clear he has not given up hope on his own title charge just yet, and McLaren CEO Zak Brown has stated the team has ‘two number one drivers’ within it, but team orders have not yet come into play regarding a title push for Norris.

Rosberg wonders if that needs to happen sooner rather than later, given that not offering Norris preference at this stage is “definitely hurting” his chances.

“The central philosophy is dictated by the very top, this comes from Zak Brown: ‘We have two number one drivers, and we want to let them race, because that’s the essence of McLaren’, which actually goes back a long time,” Rosberg explained.

“So that’s from the top, and Andrea now is executing that plan. And today, honestly, they also didn’t think that they were actually compromising a win until the very end.

“They let their drivers race, which was great, exciting, and they weren’t actually compromising the win, really, until the very end, where Ferrari just rolled the dice and caught them out by surprise, essentially, with that strategy.

“It’s just a question, of course, with Lando, with that Drivers’ Championship, but they have seemed to decide at the moment that they really want to, keep going [with] both drivers, number one drivers, and not give Lando the preference which, okay, is the decision they take, but definitely hurting Lando.”

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