03/07/2025 17:15
Lando Norris revealed McLaren's "clear" racing rules for himself
and Oscar Piastri ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix, with
the ultimatum being that the "red line" is not crossed. McLaren
has received praise this season as recently as the Austrian Grand
Prix for letting its drivers fight, rather than introduce team
orders. Team orders in the form of 'Papaya rules' were introduced
last year, following incidents in Hungary and Italy. However, in
light of McLaren having the strongest car and its drivers battling
for a maiden F1 drivers' title, fights have been allowed to take
place. It has resulted in some excellent racing between the duo,
although McLaren was forced to intervene at the Red Bull Ring due
to Piastri almost hitting Norris. Had this happened, the
championship leader would have gone beyond the Woking-based
outfit's "red line" of not making contact, something Norris
exceeded in Canada. "I'd say Canada was a fairly red line," Norris
joked to media, including RacingNews365 . "Yeah, that was a red
line. So the red line is just no contact, that is it I would say.
"It's simple, it's also not simple, because when you're racing so
much on the limits, and you're trying to push the limits of
everything, like it's so easy to make mistakes. As much as you can
say we're the best drivers in the world, doesn't mean people don't
make mistakes. "Even the very best to have won multiple world
championships still make mistakes. So, that's the line that we
don't ever want to cross. And I think we both know that very much.
So as drivers, we want to race." McLaren still in control It was
due to Norris crashing into Piastri in Montreal that the Australian
received a radio message in last weekend after narrowly avoiding
hitting the Briton at Turn 4. Piastri's huge lock-up to avoid
crashing into Norris marked the end of the pair's duel in
Spielberg, although a fight could be on the cards at Silverstone.
Despite McLaren being keen to let the drivers always race, Norris
does accept that team orders could be introduced in certain
situations. "There'll still be times when, as a team, we get told
we have to hold position or do this or do that, because we're still
under the guidance of the team," added Norris. "But the whole race
last weekend was let them race, and that's what we did. "So it's
clear to us, it's not always something that we have to voice and
make clear to everyone else, but it's quite simple. "It's, you can
do what you guys want to do. You can have fun. You can get close,
I'm sure it'll make them nervous, like it already did last weekend.
"But there's also a lot of people that work hard to build our cars
and give us the possibility to win a race in the first place, and
if we lose those opportunities because of something silly, then,
that's where we easily cross the line. So free to race, most of the
time for sure, and just don't do what I do in Canada."