McLaren calm the “papaya” storm as Rosberg urges clear rules, Audi signs Adidas, and Red Bull softens 2026 engine talk
The Monza debrief hasn’t lost its heat yet. McLaren’s internal etiquette, once neatly labelled by the paddock as “papaya rules,” is back in the headlines after Lando Norris insisted there’s no such code — not now, not ever. And while the team prepares for the next bout in a tight season, Nico Rosberg’s waving a caution flag from experience: sit the drivers down, define the edges, and do it before the pressure cooks something you can’t scrape off the walls.
Norris poured cold water on the notion of a formal, laminated pact between himself and Oscar Piastri. The gist? Race hard, race fair, don’t hit each other — but there’s no secret appendix guiding who gets priority and when. That matters, because Monza handed us exactly the kind of scenario that tests a team’s internal plumbing: Piastri was told to hand second place back to Norris after Norris lost time with a sluggish stop. Piastri made his case over the radio — there was a version of events, he suggested, where he could’ve yielded later and McLaren still banked a 2–3 without the awkward mid-race swap.
None of that was incendiary on its own. But stretch those moments over the arc of a title fight and they can turn from debris into shrapnel. Rosberg knows the pattern. He’s called for McLaren to bring Norris and Piastri into a proper briefing, not just debrief the last race. Undercuts, Safety Cars, slow stops, last-lap orders — the whole catalogue needs agreed guardrails. Mercedes once called theirs the “silver rules.” Whatever colour McLaren prefers, the outcome has to be clarity under stress.
It’s worth noting that McLaren’s overall handling of the moment was tidy. The swap was executed, points were protected, and nobody torched the radio waves. Norris’ stance — no mythical “papaya rules,” just racing sense — reads like a driver keen to keep the reins loose. And Piastri’s response, competitive but controlled, was exactly what you want from a teammate who’s fast enough to make it a discussion. McLaren doesn’t need doctrine as much as it needs consistency. That’s often the difference between internal steel and internal friction when we get to the run-in.
Elsewhere in the McLaren orbit, Zak Brown took a familiar backhand from Bernie Ecclestone, who reportedly told him to his face that he doesn’t rate him highly — except in one crucial department: hiring. And that’s arguably the only line that matters. McLaren’s transformation over the last few seasons has been built on getting the right technical pillars in place and letting them get on with it. The results — both on track and on the balance sheet — speak more clearly than Bernie’s barbs.
Another brand play became official this week: Audi has locked in a multi-year deal with Adidas as its official apparel partner. Nobody’s exactly shocked — this one’s been sat on the pit wall for a while — but it’s a neat bit of alignment for the 2026 factory entrant. Clean, global, German giants linking arms ahead of a regulation reset? If you’re Audi, that’s the picture you want in every slide deck until testing.
Over at Red Bull, the tone around 2026 engines has tempered. Before his exit, Christian Horner had goaded the field by saying it would be “embarrassing” for a manufacturer like Mercedes to be beaten by Red Bull’s first in-house power unit. The message now coming out of Milton Keynes is more grounded: don’t expect parity out of the box against the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari when the new rules land. There’s still confidence in the Red Bull Powertrains–Ford project, but the rhetoric has shifted from chest-out to clear-eyed. Building a front-running power unit from scratch under fresh regulations is a moonshot for anyone.
Zooming back out, the sport’s biggest teams are playing a familiar game with slightly different pieces. McLaren’s task is cultural as much as it is tactical: protect two drivers who can both win you Sundays, and make sure team orders don’t turn into team issues. Red Bull’s is technical humility — a rare hat for a serial winner — as it prepares for a future where chassis genius must meet engine maturity. Audi’s is brand momentum before a wheel is turned.
And Norris? He’s right to resist the mythology. McLaren doesn’t need slogans. It needs a repeatable process when the radio crackles, a plan for when pit stops go wrong, and the spine to make the same call every time, no matter who’s in front. If that’s what “papaya rules” really mean, then sure — call it what you like. The only rule that matters is the one that wins the championship.
