McLaren hand Norris and Piastri 'crystal clear' papaya rules for new F1 season

Oscar Piastri is in doubt he and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris are "crystal clear" on the rules of engagement this F1 season.

If pre-season testing is an indicator, Piastri and Norris are poised to be heavily involved in the battle for the drivers' championship after McLaren suggested in Bahrain last week that it had the edge on its rivals going into the season-opening race in Australia on March 16.

Last year, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella imposed 'papaya rules' on his drivers to ensure the best race result was obtained as the season entered a crucial juncture shortly after the summer break.

Those 'rules', however, backfired in the Italian Grand Prix when Piastri pulled off an opening lap move on polesitter Norris that cost one of the duo victory at Monza which instead went to a grateful Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari to the delight of the home fans.

As the season wore on, and it became apparent Norris was the greater threat to Verstappen for the drivers' title, McLaren favoured the Briton over Piastri in terms of strategy when it applied. On one occasion, it resulted in them swapping places in the São Paulo sprint when Piastri was on course to take the chequered flag.

A new season means a clean slate, with Piastri hoping a repeat of last year's team orders does not occur late on. For now, the duo are free to fight.

"They're crystal clear going into the start of the season," said Piastri, speaking to media when asked by RacingNews365 about the rules of engagement between the duo. "We're both starting on zero, and there's every opportunity for either of us to go and win races.

"Of course, if there becomes a points difference in either direction towards the end of the season, and we need our team-mate's help, then we'll try and help each other out.

"But that's still going to be a long, long way away and hopefully it never comes to fruition, because for either of us, we want to win, because we've been able to put in the performance ourselves.

"So going into the season, we'll be racing each other hard but fairly and hopefully, it's more often than not fighting for first and second."

Piastri eager to make poor weekends 'disappear'

Entering his third season in F1, Piastri is aware of his weaknesses that occurred on occasion over the 2024 campaign.

The Australian's results were mixed, delivering superb drives in winning races in Hungary and Azerbaijan, and collecting six other podiums along the way.

But then there were other weekends where he was considerably off the pace, in particular in relation to Norris.

Assessing what is required this season to ensure he remains in the title hunt, Piastri said: "There were a couple of weekends where I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be. It's about building up the resilience to be able to adapt a bit quicker over the weekends.

"If the weekend started bad it was difficult, especially if it was a sprint weekend, to then make the progress back towards the front, so we've gone into a lot of detail on how we can be better prepared for this season, and some of the more specific driving opportunities.

"I said at the end of last season qualifying is something I wanted to work on. But going through a lot of the details, it's not just about qualifying better.

"There are specifics that if I can improve on those, it'll make everything better, and then you get the confidence, and everything naturally helps itself, and those weekends from last season will disappear.

"It's going to be an important thing this season, putting your best foot forward every weekend because there are going to be weekends where you're not the quickest. It's then about how you can still make the most of those."