McLaren “should” win the F1 2025 Drivers’ title but Jacques Villeneuve predicts they “might not” given Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will take points off each other.

Last season McLaren emerged as title contenders, resulting in the team implementing ‘papaya rules’ in favour of Norris. But it came too late for him.

McLaren should win the F1 2025 title but…

McLaren’s ‘papaya rules’ are the set of instructions for the drivers to “keep your racing clean”.

“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,” team boss Andrea Stella told media including PlanetF1.com.

They were first brought into the conversation when the team-mates lined up first and second at the Italian Grand Prix. But while Piastri, who was second behind Norris on the grid, didn’t crash into his team-mate, he did cause Norris problems as he attacked him for the lead with the Briton running wide and also losing a position to Charles Leclerc.

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McLaren tightened their internal regulations, making it clear in the build-up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that they would “bias our support to Lando” only for the Briton to suffer a shock Q1 exit. Piastri went on to win the race.

The ‘papaya rules’ though were very much in play in Brazil when Piastri handed the victory in the Sprint to Norris, but 24 hours later his title quest imploded as he slumped to sixth in the Grand Prix while Max Verstappen claimed the win and wrapped up the title a race later in Las Vegas.

McLaren did secure one of 2024’s biggest prizes as Norris and Piastri won the Constructors’ Championship by 14 points ahead of Ferrari.

With McLaren again expected to fight for the double this season, Villeneuve says while they should have the car to do it, the intra-team battle between Norris and Piastri could hinder them.

“The way the season ended I would have put the dice a little bit more on Lando and McLaren. But the issue there will be the internal battle between the two drivers,” he told Action Network.

“McLaren have not and will not handle that well and they will eat each other’s points away. So even though they probably should be the champion, they might not be.”

As such he believes Ferrari could be in the prime seats with the 1997 World Champion believing the Scuderia will “push” the Hamilton agenda as he chases a record-breaking eighth World title.

“Lewis could have a shot at it,” he continued. “He finished on a high note. It will be an interesting battle between Lewis and Leclerc.

“You see what’s come out in the media at the moment, Ferrari is really pushing Lewis right now. There’s a big image happening. Either he’s pushed and it’s amazing. And if it’s not, then it will will pump Leclerc up. So basically it’s win-win for Ferrari right now.

“Lando should be the natural one fighting for the championship. But the internal battle and the fact that McLaren doesn’t seem to handle this internal rivalry in a very positive way, then it might fall more into Lewis’ hands, seeing how Ferrari ended up last season.”

As for the Constructors’ title, the Canadian ruled out Red Bull entering the fight after falling from first to third in 2024.

“It should be a battle between Ferrari and McLaren for the Constructors’ title,” he said. “The McLaren drivers won’t cost the team points, they will cost the driver points.

“But who remembers the Constructors’? Everybody remembers that Verstappen was the champion with Red Bull this year. So ultimately Red Bull is the champion. That’s the perception.”

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