Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images
The F1 Italian Grand Prix might have seen the move of the season on the opening lap
In the hours since the dramatic Italian Grand Prix, the Formula 1 world has been deep in debate over how McLaren is handling the 2024 season. With the Woking-based team chasing down Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, and Lando Norris attempting the same with Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, how the team handles those dual tasks has dominated the conversation.
Particularly given the now famous “Papaya Rules,” the instruction given to both Norris and Piastri regarding how they were to race each other in Monza. On the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix Piastri made an aggressive move on Norris, overtaking him at Turn 4. As Norris described after the race it was quite the tightrope Piastri needed to balance: “I don’t know what I should have done differently there,” said Norris to Nico Rosberg after the race. “If I brake one meter later, I probably would have crashed.”
As McLaren CEO Zak Brown described the instructions: “Papaya rules are it’s your teammate; race him hard, race him clean, don’t touch, that happened. It was an aggressive pass so that’s a conversation we’ll have, that was a bit nerve-wracking on pit wall but it’s really just respect your teammate.”
Putting aside the “Papaya Rules,” one thing is clear. Piastri’s bold overtake might be one of the moves of the season, up there with Alexander Albon’s stunning double pass in the Canadian Grand Prix:
And, thanks to onboard-camera technology, we have this additional — and incredible — view of Piastri’s overtake from his, and Norris’ perspectives:
As the old racing saying goes, “[i]f you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver.” Piastri saw that gap and went for it, providing one of the overtakes of the entire year.
Whether it is also the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings, to impact the course of the entire 2024 F1 season, remains to be seen.
