Max Verstappen dubbed McLaren’s in-house ‘Papaya Rules’ wording for fair racing between team-mates “nonsense”, and that he would tell his engineer to “shut up” if he heard a similar phrase over the radio.

McLaren introduced that phrase to the public domain at the Italian Grand Prix, after Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the front row, and after Piastri overtook Norris for the lead, the Briton was free to challenge his team-mate again, but labelled under the term “Papaya Rules.”

Max Verstappen gives ‘nonsense’ verdict over McLaren ‘Papaya Rules’

‘Papaya’ refers to the colour under which McLaren race, and while it has been widely accepted that the term has simply meant words to the effect of ‘race cleanly and don’t hit your team-mate’, team principal Andrea Stella explained it in slightly more detail at the time.

He told media including PlanetF1.com at Monza in September: “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.

“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.”

More on ‘Papaya Rules’ and their introduction to Formula 1

👉 ‘Papaya rules’ explained: What are McLaren instructing their drivers with new phrase?

👉 Who is Andrea Stella? From Michael Schumacher’s race engineer to McLaren team principal

Red Bull driver Verstappen did not see the same value in placing an in-house touch on such orders, however, believing it to be “nonsense” that provided an unnecessary label on these matters.

Because of the attention that the phrase gained after its first use, Verstappen believes the team could have solved their drivers racing closely in a “way easier” fashion.

“This is another nonsense quote,” Verstappen told Dutch broadcaster Viaplay when presented with McLaren’s in-house term.

“’Papaya Rules’ – that’s totally useless to me.

“If I heard that from my engineer, I’d tell him to just shut up immediately. What kind of nonsense is this?

“’You’re allowed to race’ is fine, you know, they could have solved this in a way easier and better way as a team.”

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