Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur played down the internal tensions at McLaren following the contact between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Singapore.
The incident between Norris and Piastri at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix reignited internal tensions within McLaren and brought new attention to a title fight that had otherwise become rather uneventful. After the two drivers involved and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella commented on the situation, it was Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur who also gave his opinion, minimizing the issue.
The clash, which occurred on the opening lap at Marina Bay, called into question the so-called “Papaya Rules” — McLaren’s internal code that encourages its drivers to avoid any on-track contact. Following the collision with Norris, Piastri was forced to take a wider line and expressed his frustration over the radio, questioning whether the rules still applied equally to both. The team, however, chose not to intervene, allowing the pair to continue racing freely.
“Yeah, yes, these are issues and rules or whatever you want to call them,” Vasseur told the media. “We all have to deal with our own problems, and I think it’s also a rich man’s problem when you are first and second in the championship. It’s not a drama, but what do you expect? They are first and second, they’re doing their job, and it’s not up to the team to decide every weekend.”
According to the Ferrari team principal, such tensions are inevitable when a team reaches the top. Internal rivalries often represent the price of success — a sign of competitiveness rather than a crisis. Vasseur therefore avoided any direct criticism of McLaren, emphasizing that managing two top-level drivers is a luxury every team would love to have.
In the end, as he joked himself, among all the problems that can exist in Formula 1, McLaren’s remains “a rich man’s problem.”
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