McLaren reinforce ‘papaya rules’ to both drivers in mindset warning

McLaren will line-up 1-2 on the Italian GP grid

Andrea Stella has warned his McLaren drivers to “take extra care” into Turn 1 having locked out the front row of the Italian GP grid.

McLaren celebrated a 1-2 in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, Lando Norris securing pole position by a tenth of a second ahead of Oscar Piastri.

McLaren team boss calls for ‘synergy’, not rivalry

That, though, was quickly followed by a warning to keep it clean.

Monza’s Turn 1 has been the scene of many a ferocious battle as it is one of the best spots for overtaking with a tight right-left chicane making up Turns 1 and 2.

However, as recently as Sunday morning the marshals were left to sweep up carbon fibre debris from cars that started at the sharp end of the grid as Paul Aron came from third on the grid to challenge pole-sitter Zane Maloney only to be taken out by cars from behind.

Stella would hate for that to be his drivers come the start of this afternoon’s 53-lap Italian Grand Prix, especially if they’re racing one another.

“Our recommendation is always racing with the papaya rules, whereby, when the car is papaya, like you are always careful with any other competitor, but if the car is papaya, you take even extra care,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com.

“We need to make sure, especially being the car so competitive, that we see the chequered flag and that we try and drive the race in synergy between our two drivers, rather than thinking that my main competitor is my team-mate.

“We try to stay away from this kind of mindset, because it’s not productive.”

Key insight from qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix

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Data reveals where big Lando Norris gap to Max Verstappen came in Monza qualifying

McLaren ‘have a lot of respect’ for title rivals Red Bull

The grid for Sunday’s race has opened the door for Norris to take points off Max Verstappen in the title fight where he trails the Red Bull driver by 70 points.

While Norris is lining up on pole position, Verstappen is P7 after Red Bull were not able to maximise their performance in qualifying, which Stella puts down to having to make “compromises with a rear wing”.

He, however, has warned against writing off Red Bull.

“Well, that’s not the way I look at things,” he said. “For me, the way I look at things is the face value of the qualifying is encouraging for the reasons.

“Our two drivers were in condition to push and get relatively consistent response from the car. That’s why I think actually we are P1, P2 but the lap time that Max did in Q2 tells me that their performance is there.

“For some reason, they just couldn’t maximise in qualifying and even for the rest of the practice sessions, I think Red Bull have been pretty competitive.

“I also see that here they needed, or they might have needed, to make some compromises with a rear wing to achieve low enough drag. So I don’t think they are necessarily in their ideal configuration at this track. So Red Bull, we have a lot of respect. They are very strong.

“We just go on a weekend-by-weekend approach. Every weekend we are assess the situation. We assess the situation internally in terms of where we are with the championship but there’s no championship fight if you can maximise every single weekend, and that’s our approach.”

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