The McLaren team is to continue its policy of pursuing a rigorous fairness towards Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the 2026 Formula One season. That is despite their doing so last season allowed a late challenge from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen which might have prevented the team securing the drivers’ title, which was ultimately won by Norris.

Last year McLaren enjoyed the most competitive car for most of the season and from the off, the team insisted their drivers would be free to race one another and the team would apply what they referred to as their “papaya rules” to ensure they were scrupulously fair to both in racing situations.

It was an admirable approach but one that attracted criticism, not least as the team found themselves with increasingly complex precedents set when they did, at times, intervene. At the same time, with the drivers taking points off one another across the year, it let Verstappen back into the title fight, which he lost by just two points at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Building up to the start of the new season – with a technical preview of their new car, the MCL40, at the McLaren technology centre in Woking – the team principal, Andrea Stella, confirmed they would be allowing their drivers the same freedom to go up against one another this year and maintaining their racing rules to ensure parity between them.

“The concepts of fairness, integrity, equal opportunities, sportsmanship, they are all fundamental for the team, for Lando and for Oscar,” Stella said. “So they are reaffirmed, they are confirmed and consolidated, if anything.”

Norris and Piastri indulged in a close fight across the season, with McLaren choosing not to favour one driver at an early stage – a decision which, had they taken it, would almost certainly have ensured they closed out the drivers’ title comfortably and at a far earlier point. However, Stella insisted he felt the team had done the right thing and would do so again.

“Once we reviewed what we have done, in most of the cases we said that’s exactly what we would still do again,” he said. “But we found a few opportunities in which we can streamline the way in which we operate collectively. Like I said, reaffirming the fundamental principles that we have adopted in the past.”

McLaren will unveil the MCL40 on 9 February in Bahrain but heading into the new season, even with a swathe of new regulations, Stella felt confident they were in a good position to defend their constructors’ and drivers’ titles and the team were as strong as he had ever seen since he became team principal in 2023.

“The team enters 2026 in terms of competencies, capabilities, organisation, culture if anything, in the strongest position that I have witnessed since I’m team principal,” he said.

“We remain very confident that the wealth of capabilities, competencies, and the way we use them, thanks to our organisation and culture, will be a success factor in the long term.”