Oscar Piastri says the ‘papaya rules’ is mostly done considering the F1 drivers’ title is out of reach, as Lando Norris adds on how 2024 went.
With an outside chance of winning the drivers’ title in 2024 F1 season, McLaren introduced ‘papaya rules’ to aide Norris, where Piastri was requested to help the Brit in blatant cases. This came after the Australian’s move on the Brit in Monza, which eventually hurt their chance to score well.
While it was not used as widely as Piastri also noted, but in Brazil, the Australian gave way to Norris to take the F1 sprint win. But after what happened in the main race where the Brit lost chunk of points, it has put the drivers’ championship out of their hands per se with a very slim chance now.
In fact, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen can clinch the title in this weekend’s Las Vegas itself. Seeing how things are, Piastri noted that they are pretty much back to the old rule with some modifications. The Australian also reflected on giving up the sprint win, which wasn’t a disappointment to him.
“Pretty much, yes [we are on the old rule],” said Piastri to media. “There’s still some very specific scenarios where I might be needed to help out, but for the very large majority of situations, it’s back to how it was. The drivers’ championship picture is very slim, and the constructors’ championship is certainly not over for us. It’s certainly not a done deal, so that’s definitely the biggest thing.
“It’s a very specific few scenarios that maybe I’ll still help out, if that’s what I’m asked to do, but I’m going into the weekend trying to win. Yes, definitely [it is different scenario to Brazil]. To be honest, I wasn’t that disappointed with giving that up. Of course I would have loved to have won the sprint, but a very different scenario to a grand prix. I proved what I wanted to prove, in terms of qualifying on pole, and that was just to myself.
“Qualifying on pole for the sprint, even if I had won the sprint, qualifying on pole was probably the more satisfying thing for me. I knew I did the right things in the sprint, and that’s good for me. I’m happy that we don’t have to go into those kind of things as much anymore, and obviously next year, I want to make sure that I’m not in a position, championship wise, to be subject to that.
“But in reality, I probably needed to help out at that one time in Brazil and that’s been it. So it’s been a lot of talk for not much on-track action,” summed up Piastri. On the rother side, Norris reflected on having slim chance now after Brazil to win the F1 drivers’ title having had the realisation in the gap after the race.
But the biggest thing that Norris feels he has understood is that he can be in the title contention and that he can fight for it too. He also opened up on the social media and fan reaction, which didn’t hamper him considering he knows that there will be naysayers on the topic.
Mindset after Brazil –
Norris: “It’s a tough one. Not a lot has changed, honestly. I kind of know the position I’m in now, and probably I have less to lose now. You know, the gap to Max is for the first time, probably when I’ve looked at the gap myself, and had the realisation of where things stand and I think post-Brazil was a tough one for me because it was the first moment realistically when I’m like it’s tough to achieve first position now. We were on such a good run of form, little by little, it’s hard to get any big points on Max, because he didn’t have any bad races, but I had a tough week, because things just didn’t go our way, and my kind of real fight for the championship was slimmed by the biggest margin of almost of the whole year, so a tricky one. But it doesn’t change my approach. My approach has been correct. My approach has been the right approach for the last few weekends. I’ve been performing well. I’ve been doing a good job. So from my side, I need to not change anything, but I think I can probably just go out and enjoy a little bit more.”
Luck situation –
Norris: “You have to learn to accept it. I think what made it Brazil tough was two things. One was for something like this to happen so late in the season. I think, you know, when it’s earlier in the season, you know, it’s like it’s more so be it and you just see what happens later on. But this was almost a defining moment for the championship. It was a defining moment for the championship. The doors are almost shut. For a week I was pretty down after Brazil because I had that realisation that things are pretty much out of my control now, not within reach necessarily.
“That’s a tough realisation when your hopes and your belief is so high for it to get knocked down so much all of a sudden was pretty demoralising and not the best of feelings. You learn to accept that. that’s life. I admitted, and I admitted even in Miami, that I was lucky in Miami to get the win with the Safety Car, and that’s the strategy you play. I think Brazil was still a bit more luck of the trade, but that is Formula 1. That’s racing. I’ve not complained about it. Luck can be on your side. It can be on other people’s side. That’s life. So I don’t mind. One day it will go your way. The next it won’t.”
Check situation –
Norris: “Yeah, it’s a tough one. I don’t know chess that well, honestly, but it’s probably check. I can survive. I can put up a fight. That’s what I do, but at some point you kind of know it’s not going to be your way and it’s not going to go your way. But you never know, so I’m not saying it is over and I won’t say it’s over until it is, but you know it’s very far out of reach at the minute and we’ve been performing well, but I need a lot of luck if anything, if I can and It’s pretty much like I’ve got to win three races and Max has to not finish three races in a way. So, yeah, it’s check. And I’m all alone. And Max has all his pawns ready to attack me. But that’s probably all I know.”
Team order situation –
Norris: “But that didn’t change the championship points, so… I feel like a lot of people try to come up with something here. I’m not saying you are, but we’ve never done something that harmed the team. I feel like people think we do. Everything we’ve done, we’ve just swapped a position. It’s not hurt us, so it’s not benefited us. It benefited me because I was in the fight for the championship and that’s the game we also have to play, just as I’ve helped Oscar in a few occasions and helped him win in Baku, you know. I did my job there. But I think Andrea made it very clear from the beginning that we would never do something that would make the team result worse. So no, nothing is going to change.”
Fan, social media reaction –
Norris: “There are more eyes on you, of course. When you’re fighting at the front there’s more people watching and you’re going to have more supporters. In some ways you’re going to have more people who are against you and supporting other drivers. There’s definitely been more controversial moments and things. I’ve definitely voiced my opinion probably more clearly than I have in the past and sometimes people who agree with it sometimes they won’t and I’m fine with that. I think things still clearly get taken out of context. That was one of the things in Brazil was stuff got quite easily taken out of context from what I said and created definitely the wrong perception of what I meant and what I said. I don’t feel like I’m under attack. You know, I don’t mind these things. That’s social media. You know, I do my best to just be honest, be myself and you always want people to be on your side. But at the same time, I realise you can’t have everyone on your side. And that’s probably one of the things I’ve realised this year. So, yeah, I probably have more enemies, but I’ve also got more supporters. And I’m obviously happier and more thankful for the supporters that I’ve got.”
Learning from 2024, everything happens for a reason –
Norris: “That I have what it takes. I think it’s the first time in the last six years of Formula 1 when we’ve had a chance to fight at the front, we’ve not been able to do that for the last six years. So this is our and my first opportunity to do so, and my first opportunity to see where I stand. And I definitely was not at the level I needed to be at the beginning of the year, and even Miami point of the season. Since the summer break, I feel like I’ve done a very good job and performed very, very well, by far some of my best performances that I’ve done. So I’ve been very happy, actually, with how the last few months have gone, honestly. I wouldn’t change many things that have happened. But I still need to make tweaks. I still need to improve on things. That’s clear. You know, I’m not completely satisfied with how I’ve done. I definitely know I need to make improvements. But for the first time, I’m confident to say that I have what I think I need to fight for a championship. Doesn’t mean I’m complete, doesn’t mean I’m perfect, that’s for sure. And when you’re competing against drivers who are close to that, like Max, you have to be close to perfect if you want to challenge him, you know, and challenge the teams we’re around. So I’m confident and I think the main thing I can take away is I have faith that I have got what it takes to fight for a championship.
“I think going into a season with a mindset of let’s try and win it, it’s a very different mindset to what we had this year. It’s been a different story throughout the season. We started miles off the pace. We started third, fourth, best team at the beginning of the year. We were for a long time. Red Bull were extremely dominant, more dominant than any other team has been for the rest of the year. We’ve been extremely quick and probably one of the quickest for the most part. But when we have been, it’s been by a much smaller margin. So to create the differences that they were able to create in the beginning of the year, it’s pretty much impossible. I feel like I’ve still done a very good job, but it’s clear… One thing you’ll always get from me is the honesty of whether I’ve done a good job, a bad job, or whether we as a team have done a good job or a bad job and I’ll be honest with what I say. I think there’s been plenty of races, there’s been a good few where we didn’t perform to the level we needed to do, as a team. Silverstone, for example, is one where we should have had probably a 1-2. And we couldn’t have finished further from a 1-2. There are sides where as a team we didn’t perform at the level we needed to do as a world championship winning team but there’s also been plenty of times when I’ve not performed at the level I need to perform at to win a championship.
“I probably wasn’t outright ready to go up against Red Bull and Max. I think I am now, and it’s probably too late to do that. Maybe there are other drivers in the past that were ready for such an occasion. But no one has gone up against Max so early on in kind of their career, halfway through the season, and put up, I think, a pretty reasonable fight. I mean, I’m there, but there’s no one else doing it, you know? So I’ve done my best. I’ve not done well enough. And I’ve always admitted that. And I think Max is probably one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1 and I don’t think you’ll probably get a much better driver than Max ever in Formula 1 ever again. That’s my opinion but that’s what I believe in and for me to go up against that belief, to fight against that person that I know is so good, Takes a bit more than what I probably achieved this season, but I think what I’ve done since the summer break is closer to what I need to be, and I think that is close to being good enough to fighting for it next year.”
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