At the 2025 Singapore grand prix, in the very first corner in fact, the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri exchanged what could gently be called a love tap. As it were, Norris had already tapped the back of Max Verstappen and sustained some front-wing damage. Neither McLaren, though, took any damage to their cars in the exchange between teammates.
But. Piastri felt quite strongly that Norris had broken the infamous Papaya rules and wanted the team to act from the pit wall. To clarify, Papaya rules are a set of guidelines provided to both Norris and Piastri, a sort of rules of engagement doctrine, if you will. Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, has always maintained that the drivers are free to race each other so long as they don’t make contact and cost the team potential points. So far, so good. But Piastri felt very differently and let it be known throughout the duration of the Singapore Grand Prix.
It’s fairly easy to see both sides of this argument. On the one hand, Norris had driven into a gap, tapped the back of Verstappen, and was scooping up his McLaren when he tagged Piastri. Given that it was also the very start of the race, stewards agreed that it was nothing more than a racing incident. On the other hand, Piastri was adamant that the contact from Norris broke the inter-team rules. End of story. Whichever camp you find yourself in, arguments can and were made. Drivers were villainised, others dubbed victims. The whole saga has played out, all week, on social media.
But of course, team orders are not a new phenomenon in F1. In fact, it lives in illustrious infamy in many cases.
Schumacher/Barrichello
The straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of actual regulation change came in 2002. Back then, the Red Bull Ring was known as the A1 Ring, and a guy named Michael Schumacher ruled the roost in F1 and definitely within the Ferrari team. Rubens Barrichello had led the entire race while Schumacher had, literally, recovered from a fireball in the pit lane to run a close-ish second. But Ferrari, being the team that they are (this will make more sense later), called for Barrichello to let through his teammate into P1. Naturally, Barrichello wasn’t happy with the call and made these feelings known in the most obvious way possible. How, may ask? He slowed down nearly on the finish line for Schumacher to pass.
Fans at the track booed Schumacher, who was pushing Barrichello onto the top step of the podium. In his defence, Schumacher later repaid the favour at the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix by slowing just before the finish line, which promoted Barrichello to first. Though, team orders were never a genuine ‘secret’, the cat was out of the very public bag. This prompted a regulation change, making a direct instruction of team orders illegal.
Felipe Massa/Fernando Alonso
You would think that Ferrari would be more circumspect with these types of orders, then. Nope. At the 2010 German Grand Prix, Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso newly in their stable, instructed Felipe Massa’s race engineer to relay a team order. Massa, who had not only been leading the race but had also recovered from a fractured skull at the 2009 Hungarian grand prix, was unceremoniously told to move over. The notorious radio message of: Fernando is faster than you was born and now lives in infamy.
Damon Hill/Ralf Schumacher
At the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, which saw more than a few drivers retire from the race, Eddie Jordan’s drivers found themselves in first and second. Damon Hill is in the lead but being closed down at a vast rate of knots by teammate Ralf Schumacher. Hill, well aware it could be his last opportunity to win a grand prix, told the team to think about winning the race. Eddie Jordan agreed and called off any fight that might have been between the two. Jordan dramatically won the race, and the rest is racing history.
Seb Vettel/Mark Webber
At the start of the 2010s, Seb Vettel was dominating F1, but his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber was snapping at his heels, at least some of the time. None of the incidents is more famous than the Multi21 drama at the Malaysian grand prix in 2013. Webber, the most famous Aussie in F1 before Piastri, was easily in the lead of the race and seemed mostly comfortable. That was until Vettel upped his pace and closed down his teammate. The team handed down the order of Multi21, which meant driver 2 holds position in front of driver 1, in this case Webber in front of Vettel. The ruthless German, though, did not heed the call and overtook Webber.
There were more incidents between this pair. Not least of the front-wing drama at the 2012 Silverstone Grand Prix. On this occasion, the team opted to take a newly developed front wing off Webber’s car and fitted it to Vettel’s. This generated the famous quip from Webber, who had gone on to win the race, ‘Not bad for a number 2 driver’.
Papaya rules
So, team orders are not new to F1. And neither are inter-team rules, orders, and regulations. Piastri’s grievance isn’t unfounded, but it may be slightly misguided. As much as F1 has changed, many things have stayed the same. McLaren’s approach to allowing drivers to race, but race clean, is a fairly uncommon approach. As proven by many other accounts, some mentioned in this article.
The fact remains that team orders will always be a divisive topic for fans and drivers. McLaren may call them Papaya rules, Ferrari may call it ‘strategy’, Red Bull may just make ‘suggestions’. But whatever the colour, the rule remains the same: In Formula 1, the closer you are to your teammate, the sharper your elbows need to be.
