McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has addressed the team's controversial 'papaya rules' ahead of the upcoming Formula One season.
There's now just six weeks left to wait until lights go out at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit for the F1 season opener in Melbourne, Australia.
Ahead of the season beginning, several of the biggest names in the sport attended the Autosport Awards in London to celebrate their achievements in 2025.
Among the big winners were, of course, 2025 Drivers' Champion Lando Norris and McLaren, who claimed the British Competition Driver of the Year and the Team of the Year awards respectively.
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After such a strong season, the pressure is on McLaren going into 2026, but before it gets underway team principal Stella spoke with the media and decided to address the one negative that clouded McLaren's spectacular season, the infamous papaya rules.
Throughout the 2025 season, papaya rules was hot topic as McLaren allowed both drivers to fight for the title right up until the final race as, suggesting that this keeps everything fair within the team,
However, the unique approach caused plenty of controversy during the season, particularly as fans felt that Norris was being given preferential treatment over teammate Oscar Piastri.
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And it appears that McLaren boss Stella is aware of how the rules were perceived, as he revealed that they will be reviewing the process ahead of te 2026 season opener.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Stella said: "I can certainly say that like with anything else that we approach at McLaren, we go through a thorough process of review, such that we can see where the opportunities are to improve.
"And this was the same for what we call the racing principles and the way we go racing and internal competition."
However, the team principal later doubled down on McLaren's 'team values', adding: "We got quite a lot of feedback already during the season last year. We had conversations after the season. And we are having conversations pretty much as we speak now.
"All of these has led us to reaffirm fundamentally that the concepts of fairness, integrity, equal opportunities, sportsmanship, they are all fundamental for the team, for Lando and for Oscar. They are reaffirmed, they are confirmed and consolidated if anything.
"At the same time, we all acknowledge that the volume of work required for instance for the team and to some extent even for the drivers related to internal competition was important.
"Therefore, any attempt we can make to make this going racing together just simpler, to some extent, will be welcome.
The claims comes amid concerns that McLaren's car for the 2026 season will initially struggle with reliability issues, particularly after McLaren confirmed that they will not take part in the first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Barcelona next week.
Topics: Formula 1, McLaren, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Motorsport
Ben McCrum