Max Verstappen laughs off McLaren’s papaya rules: With me, the gap would be bigger

The Dutchman waded into the debate around McLaren’s papaya rules, adding that the team brought the discussion on itself by “trying so hard to make everything equal”

Max Verstappen jokes that McLaren’s “papaya rules” wouldn’t be a problem if he were driving for the team as “we wouldn’t be that close in points.” He also suggested that if father Jos Verstappen were on hand, he would find a way to deal with the debate as well.

Ahead of the United States Grand Prix, McLaren’s “papaya rules” have once again come under scrutiny in the paddock. Following the first lap contact between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Singapore, the team held what it described as “good talks,” ultimately placing responsibility on Norris. The Briton admitted there would be “repercussions,” but declined to reveal what those were. Piastri, for his part, said he’s convinced that McLaren does not favour Norris.

Verstappen: McLaren made things complicated for themselves

When the topic came up during Verstappen’s Dutch media round in Austin, the world champion shared his view that McLaren made things unnecessarily complicated.

“If you leave the door slightly open like Oscar did in Singapore, then you might end up in a situation like that,” Verstappen said. “But on the other hand, they kind of created this themselves by trying so hard to make everything equal with certain actions.”

In Verstappen’s view, it’s impossible to manage an F1 title fight, and equally impossible to keep everything fair by intervening from the pit wall. “You know, a championship is never 100 percent fair when it comes to certain moments. Sometimes you get a bad pit stop, sometimes an engine breaks. You can’t really balance that out, I think. They see it differently at McLaren, but this is my opinion. It’s very difficult – and that’s what sometimes leads to frustration.”

When Motorsport.com noted that Verstappen would never accept such interventions from the pit wall as a driver, the Dutchman laughed: “No, but then we probably wouldn’t be that close in points anyway,” he said, implying that his lead would be bigger when driving the McLaren car.

“Then, automatically, it wouldn’t be an issue. You just have to try and make sure you don’t end up in a situation like that.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Verstappen jokes about Jos as McLaren team boss

During the press conference in Austin, Verstappen added that his father Jos would make a good team principal in his opinion. The comment raised eyebrows in the paddock, given the fiery personality – but Max insisted that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“I think it’s actually good for a lot of people to get a kick in the ass sometimes!” Verstappen laughed. “I think my dad would be a good team boss, also in F1. But he doesn’t want that. He’d be away from home too much. He’s already been through that with me, and now he has his family as well. It’s just not doable, and I think we shouldn’t want that from our side. But I’m 100% sure that he would do well.”

When Motorsport.com jokingly suggested that Jos would quickly deal with McLaren’s papaya rules, Verstappen laughed: “Yeah, there wouldn’t be any rules at all! You’d just have to put your right foot down! I know exactly what my dad is like.”

Norris insists McLaren’s approach is still better

For their part, the McLaren drivers believe that all focus on the papaya rules is blown out of proportion. Norris suggested it’s more of a topic for outsiders than for people within the team.

“I think that's just your opinion on the outside. I think if I was on the outside, I would probably have a similar opinion and outlook on those things. But internally, it's pretty simple. You think there's this big amount of rules and all these things, but there's not. There's very little and it's very simple. People like to talk about it a lot and bring it up a lot, but it's quite a small amount of things, and it's stuff that I think we always understand.”

Norris added that the perception of fans gets worse because drivers naturally question every decision over the radio. “Like Andrea says a lot of the time, we still have the right to question it. We're never going to just go around because I think it's just a racing driver's mind. From my side or Oscar's side, we're always going to question it, even if it is one-sided or not.”

“I understand a lot of people have different opinions and think maybe other things are correct, but I still stand by the fact that I think and I'm confident that Andrea, Oscar and all of us are confident that our approach is better than other people's.”