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McLaren Racing team boss Andrea Stella has revealed the 'practical rules' that have been imposed on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri amid their battle for the 2025 drivers' title. The Italian has explained that while the drivers are allowed to race, they must follow a certain set of basic instructions.The team dynamic within McLaren has come under the spotlight on numerous occasions during the 2025 F1 season, especially relating to their handling of the title fight between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. "Papaya rules" have often been quoted without many people even knowing what exactly they mean.McLaren team principal Andrea Stella recently joined Zak Brown on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, where he outlined the key instructions given to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri amid their on-track battles.The 54-year-old revealed the nature of the "practical rules" that have been relayed to the drivers."‘Guys, we support your aspirations, we know that you want to both be champions, we let you race. There will have to be some rules because you come from the same garage. So, one has to go first and the other one has to go second. We execute a pitstop in the same pit box, so we cannot pit the same lap’," said Stella."So there are some practical kind of rules that you need to have, (like) don't crash into each other. But apart from that, there is not much more than this. We let them race, we want to see them racing with fairness, we want to see them racing with respect for the brand," he added (48:00 onwards).With four rounds of the 2025 season to go, Lando Norris leads the drivers' world championship by 1 point from Oscar Piastri. McLaren has already secured the constructors' title, and the only thing remaining to be decided is who will win the drivers' crown this year.Zak Brown addresses criticism over McLaren's handling of the Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri title fightLando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the Spanish Grand Prix - Source: GettyMcLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown claimed that the team simply ignores the outside noise, as many have criticized their handling of the Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri title fight this year. The American also added that the Papaya team is fair and equal to both their drivers.On the same podcast episode, Andrea Stella was asked how the team deals with critics who claim McLaren is meddling with the drivers' title fight too much. Zak Brown interjected to answer instead, saying (49:30 onwards):"Ignore them.""I think the reason why you see such a great relationship between Lando and Oscar is because they know they have equal opportunity to win the world championship. We're transparent, we're fair, we communicate. We're not perfect but we're racers and they know that. So there is all this noise around but we do not let that noise come inside the MTC," he added.It remains to be seen whether either of the two McLaren drivers can reach the pinnacle and secure their first world championship in 2025. But it is still not a certainty with Max Verstappen only 36 points adrift.No one is counting the Dutchman out of making the title fight at least even more intriguing as we enter the business end of the 2025 season.
