Not Norris, but McLaren's policy is the reason for the F1 fans' booing

Lando Norris has become a victim of his own team’s policies — McLaren’s much-criticised “Papaya Rules” are, in fact, the real reason fans are booing him.

First of all, it must be said that booing and whistling remain strange phenomena. Although it’s nothing new, there was a time when Formula 1 fans came to watch F1 itself. Nowadays, there is more conflict between fans of different teams and drivers, resulting in such reactions toward their rivals.

We’ve seen it more often in recent years. Michael Schumacher was not always the most beloved man on the podium during his dominant years, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were also loudly booed when they cruised to another easy win, and Max Verstappen was treated the same way multiple times by the crowd over the course of the 2022 and 2023 seasons as well.

So it’s not new that Norris was booed by a packed stadium in Mexico City. What is unique is that McLaren drivers are being booed even before they’ve become world champions. Most booing tends to stem from frustration that a driver or team has won so often. That is not the case with Norris and McLaren.

Lando Norris was loudly booed during his post-race interview - Photo: RacePictures

As a team, McLaren has arguably been the best on the grid for nearly two years, but it’s still nothing like the dominance once shown by Ferrari, Mercedes, or Red Bull Racing. Other drivers also won races in 2025, and Verstappen can even still become world champion. The booing now happens for a different reason.

According to a Mexican journalist, it stems from Monza, where Norris was gifted a position by Oscar Piastri. Norris should give those three points back so Mexican fans will once again have a positive view of him. Still, it’s not only Mexican fans who are booing the McLaren drivers.

McLaren’s policy is the cause

The roaring stadium in Mexico City was deafening, but Norris being booed was nothing new. After several GPs in 2025, it was especially Norris who repeatedly received this reaction. So it can’t be just the incident in Monza or the Mexican fans; it’s a pattern that has been going on for some time.

The real reason for the booing is that people seem fed up with McLaren even before they’ve won a title. Why? The despised Papaya Rules. McLaren keeps getting itself into trouble by constantly telling what has been discussed internally and why certain decisions were taken. Everything is placed under a magnifying glass, leaving little racing to enjoy.

Verstappen stated earlier this season that McLaren is simply making things too difficult for itself. After all, you can’t script a championship and have it be fair. The latter is exactly what McLaren seems to want to do.

Lando Norris looks at the crowd in the stadium in disbelief - Photo: RacePictures

For a team that claimed it wanted to let its drivers race, McLaren has issued far too many team orders — and that’s not even the end of it. Plenty happens off the track as well.

After Singapore, Norris was punished by the team because he hit Piastri. This time there was no team order during the race, but repercussions for the Brit after the race. Piastri would be allowed to decide for the rest of the season whether he would go out first or second during qualifying.

One race later in Austin, however, it already went wrong again. Due to a crash in the sprint race, for which Piastri was blamed, the repercussions were removed again.

The F1 world is done with the Papaya Rules

Everyone seems fed up with all this scheming by now. In Austin, GPblog already noted that a sense of cynicism prevailed in the paddock after yet another U-turn from McLaren. You notice it in the paddock, but fans are also making themselves heard more and more.

Once again: you’d rather not hear whistles and boos in F1 at all. But it comes with the current moment in time, as there is more polarization, and in that context, you can understand why people are dissatisfied with McLaren.

Ironically, this makes McLaren the first team to manage to get booed even before it has won the drivers’ championship, let alone dominated it. In that respect, it would be wise for McLaren to look in the mirror, because the way it is operating now is anything but appreciated by the F1 world.

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