“Both Drivers Are Going to Fight for the Championship”: Zak Brown Hints at Return of ‘Papaya Rules’ at McLaren in 2025

McLaren is expected to win both championships this season, and the team remains confident following their stellar finish last year.

To achieve that, McLaren will need to improve on their 2024 campaign, where they secured the Constructors’ title for the first time since 1998. However, Lando Norris fell short in the Drivers’ Championship, which went to Max Verstappen.

Zak Brown expects 2025 to be different. “I think both drivers are going to fight for the championship,” he said on The Intercooler podcast when asked if Norris has another level that he can attain.

At the same time, if Oscar Piastri joins in, we could very well see a return of Papaya Rules.

Last year’s Hungarian GP was the first race where McLaren introduced these rules. Simply put, McLaren allowed their drivers to race each other freely—as long as they kept it clean and avoided the sin of making contact, which could have compromised their races.

While a driver’s priority may seem to be helping the team, Nico Rosberg had a warning for CEO Zak Brow. The German stated that, in theory, drivers understand what they should do and what they must avoid. But when a championship is on the line, things rarely go smoothly. “From my experience, just a reminder to give some guidelines,”

With ‘Papaya Rules,’ both Norris and Piastri often fought each other and at times even cost the team crucial points — the perfect case in point being the Italian GP when McLaren lost out on a comfortable 1-2 and ended up finishing 2-3.

While McLaren would have learned from that, having two drivers fighting each other for podiums and race wins from the get-go could still pose a new challenge for them.

“I can be world champion this year“: Piastri issues warning to Norris

With Norris being the only realistic title contender to Verstappen last season, McLaren had little trouble managing their drivers. It was relatively easy for them to have Piastri play a supporting role, helping Norris in his fight against Verstappen.

But 2025 presents a different challenge, as all drivers and teams start on a clean slate. Piastri is well aware of this and has already warned Norris that, like the Briton, his goal this season is to fight for the Drivers’ Championship.

“We are starting on a clean slate and I do think that I can become world champion this year,” Piastri said in a recent interview. “I feel like 12 months ago I was going into the season still with some weaknesses that I wasn’t particularly confident with. I think through last season I addressed them“.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella too has warned Norris that there will be no favoritism in their camp and that if the 25-year-old wants to win his maiden championship, he will have to earn it himself.

“The team is in the lucky position of having two drivers that can contend for victories, like they have already proven, and can contend for championships if the car will be good enough to be competitive,” Stella said. “The main aspect is that both drivers start the season with equal opportunities, and our fundamentals are based on the racing principles that we already used last year“.

While McLaren and their drivers will undoubtedly be ones to watch this season, Ferrari cannot be overlooked either. The Italian outfit fell just 14 points short of McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship last year.

As a result, Norris and Piastri are likely to face strong competition from Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in the fight for the Drivers’ title. And, of course, reigning champion Verstappen remains a formidable threat, having secured last year’s championship despite struggling with a subpar RB20 that often suffered from balance issues.