Revealed: What Nico Rosberg said to Zak Brown in grilling over McLaren ‘papaya rules’

Nico Rosberg firmly questioned McLaren CEO Zak Brown about ‘papaya rules’, and whether it was time to introduce team orders into their title fight.

Oscar Piastri overtook Lando Norris on the first lap at Monza on Sunday, going on to finish second behind Charles Leclerc as the Ferrari driver’s strategy paid dividends in front of the Scuderia’s fervent home support.

What Nico Rosberg asked McLaren CEO about ‘papaya rules’

With Norris 44 points ahead of Piastri and still 62 behind World Championship leader Max Verstappen, questions have been raised about whether McLaren should throw their weight behind Norris for the remainder of the F1 2024 season in a title fight.

2016 World Champion Rosberg put this to Brown after he discussed Piastri’s overtake on the opening lap at the Temple of Speed, sweeping around the outside of his team-mate to take the lead, with Norris subsequently dropping to third behind Leclerc.

“It was an aggressive move, but I’ve not spoken with him yet,” Brown said to Sky F1 in the immediate aftermath of the race.

“We’ll talk about that. I thought their start was great, and that was kind of what we discussed – get behind the other and fan out to make sure no-one else can get by.

“But I think Lando was probably caught by surprise with that move, thinking ‘let’s just tuck into a one-two and see if we can pull a bit of a gap.’

“So it is something that we’ll discuss internally.”

Rosberg interjected at this point, questioning: “You just said it was agreed that one guy would fan out to protect, but are you saying that maybe Oscar went beyond the agreement?”

Brown then clarified: “That was going into Turn 1.”

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The 2016 World Champion continued his line of enquiry, adding: “But Zak, isn’t it time to introduce a little bit of team orders, let’s call it that way, into the papaya rules?

“Because look, at Turn 4 now, you allowed Leclerc to come through. First of all, Lando almost spun. I mean, that was very close, it won’t get closer than that, and then you allowed Leclerc to come through.

“Who knows, maybe that was exactly those two points that could have cost you the win – maybe. Isn’t it time to implement a rule here?”

The McLaren CEO responded immediately: “That’s what we’ll discuss, we’ll look at that. Because, unfortunately, getting Leclerc in the middle [of the drivers], could we have been able to pull away, and then the three, four seconds we lost to Leclerc by, gain that then? So, no, it’s a fair question.”

Then the question of ‘papaya rules’ came into it, as Norris had been told he was free to race Piastri under those terms.

Rosberg continued: “Papaya rules. What are they? And was Oscar following the papaya rules? Or did he go beyond them in Turn 4?”

Brown clarified: “Papaya rules are, it’s your team-mate, race him hard, race him clean, don’t touch.

“It was an aggressive pass, so that’s a conversation that we’ll have.

“It was a bit nerve-wracking on pit wall, but it’s really just respect to your team-mate.

“Lando got a bad run out of that corner as well, so kind of opened the door a little bit. But, you know, it would have been nice to see them run one-two a little bit longer.”

Putting forward his views on the overtake, the German added: “My two cents, the pass from Oscar was just awesome and fair and square, even within team-mates. Yeah, that’s my two cents.”

Brown agreed, replying: “They didn’t touch. It was an aggressive pass, but it was a clean pass.”

Put to the McLaren CEO by presenter Simon Lazenby that Norris had been cost points as a result of not being kept ahead of Piastri, and the need should be to prioritise the Drivers’ Championship, Brown asserted that the philosophy of ‘two number ones’ tracks with the history of McLaren.

“Number one priority is to win both championships,” he stated. “I know that’s kind of two priorities, but they’re both young drivers who want to win.

“We’ve always believed that having two number ones, that’s always been McLaren’s way, it can be very difficult to manage. You [pointing to Rosberg, ed.] know what it was like with Lewis [Hamilton], We’ve seen it with [Ayrton] Senna and [Alain] Prost.

“So they get along great. They do race each other clean. And it’s philosophical, you’re a one-car team or a two-car team, and the easiest thing would have been for Lando to just run away with it and then not have to put difficult decisions on pit wall. But you know, Andrea and I are taking it one race at a time.”

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