Lando Norris regrets breaking ‘rule No. 1’ at McLaren in Canada

Lando Norris regrets breaking McLaren’s “number one rule” in the Canadian Grand Prix.

McLaren's primary directive for its drivers is to avoid contact with each other, a rule that Lando Norris unfortunately violated during Sunday's race.

Lando Norris regrets breaking McLaren’s No. 1 rule

As McLaren has emerged as a front-running team in 2024, Team Principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown emphasized the importance of teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri working collaboratively.

To that end, McLaren introduced "papaya rules" – guidelines for inter-driver conduct.

• "Our recommendation is always racing with the papaya rules, whereby, when the car is papaya, like you are always careful with any other competitor, but if the car is papaya, you take even extra care," Stella explained to media, including PlanetF1.com, prior to the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.
• He added, "We need to make sure, especially being the car so competitive, that we see the chequered flag and that we try and drive the race in synergy between our two drivers, rather than thinking that my main competitor is my team-mate. We try to stay away from this kind of mindset, because it’s not productive."

Norris himself summarized the "papaya rules" as simply: "Just don’t crash. That’s all."

However, during the Canadian Grand Prix, a collision did occur.

In the closing laps, Norris closed the gap to his teammate Piastri and was in DRS range. After several attempts to get alongside, Norris attempted a move on the front straight, darting behind Piastri. Disaster struck as Norris appeared to misjudge the distance, colliding with Piastri's left rear tyre with his front wing. While Piastri continued, Norris slid into the pit wall and retired from the race.

Speaking to the media post-race, Norris expressed deep regret: "Our rule No. 1 is to not make contact with your teammate, that’s what I did. McLaren is my family. I race for them. Every single weekend I try and do well for them, more than I often try and do well for myself. So when I let them down like this, and when I make a fool of myself in a moment like today, I have a lot of regret in something like that. I’m not proud of that, and I feel bad, and I feel like I let down my team, and that’s for me always the worst feeling. So of course, I only really need to apologize to all of them and Oscar as well."

Norris immediately apologized over the radio and later to Piastri in person.

This incident could prompt McLaren to reassess its approach to team orders.

"We want to give Lando and Oscar opportunities to race and opportunities to be, at the end of the season, in the position that they deserve to be in based on their merit, based on their performance, and the racing quality that they have expressed through the season," Stella commented. "Rather than being at the end of the season and realising that the points have been controlled more by the team, rather than the quality of their driving."

Stella added, "So I don’t foresee that today’s episode will change our approach from this point of view – if anything, it will reinforce and strengthen that the principles we have requires more caution by our drivers. Because, if we say that there should be no contact between the two McLarens, we need to have the margins to make sure that we have no contact – even if in a DRS situation, the car may get almost a little bit sucked onto the other car and cause this kind of misjudgement as to the distance."