Yahoo Autos Shocking Q1 Exit For Lando Norris Alleviates New 'Papaya Rules' Pressure on Piastri
Earlier this week, an internal conversation at McLaren ended with a redefinition of their driver's orders to help maximize Lando Norris' chances at the World Drivers Championship this year.
These new "Papaya Rules," as McLaren has coined them, will likely not come into play this weekend as a shockingly bad Q1 for Lando Norris, who has him starting 17th at the Baku Street Circuit. Before today, McLaren was the only team that has had both drivers advance to Q3 every week.
Both McLaren drivers took their final lap in Q1 at the last possible moment while floating around the P15 cutline. Piastri rocketed to third, and it looked like Norris would follow, but a bad corner, where he ran wide and drove over a curb, scrubbed enough time off his lap to fall in Q1.
"I'm sorry," the McLaren driver said over the radio.
Norris enters Baku 62 points behind Max Verstappen; in every race, he needs to make up points on the reigning world champion in the hopes of bringing McLaren their first championship since Lewis Hamilton. Unfortunately, the furthest back anyone has won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from is 10th, and Norris's championship rival will start four rows ahead of him in sixth position.
Norris' teammate Piastri improved his Q1 performance to start on the front row next to Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Piastri can focus on fighting for his second career win, as he won't have the chance to help Norris in positions unless he falls through the field or Norris puts on a clinic running from the back. Piastri has agreed to help his teammate with positions for the overall goal of a McLaren WDC this year. In a video released by F1, the Australian driver claimed that while it's hard to agree to the terms, he's willing to be a team player.
"The team has asked me to help out, and I’ve said for the last few races that if I was asked, I would," Piastri stated. "Naturally, as a driver, it’s never an easy thing or a simple thing to agree to. There’s a much bigger picture in play than just myself. I’m still coming out here to try and achieve the best results that I can and put myself in a good position to score a lot of points for myself and the team. If there’s some ways of helping the points for Lando, then I will do that."
Having two extremely talented and capable young drivers is a good problem to have for McLaren, but it does lead to this sticky situation when a team is forced to prioritize. This decision came in response to Piastri overtaking Norris at Monza for third; ultimately, Piastri finished second and Norris third, costing three points for the second-place driver.
Norris will have to pass seven drivers this Sunday to score a single point.
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