“You are allowed to race Oscar. Papaya rules,” Those are the instructions Lando Norris received earlier in the season when going up against his teammate. In the fight for the championship at the time, Norris had it all to lose, until Las Vegas GP.

McLaren’s star driver, Lando Norris, shut down his critics, who peppered him for not being a team player during the Sprint run at the Qatar Grand Prix. Norris was in command throughout the 19 laps, but he slowed down on the final turn coming to the front stretch. This allowed his teammate Oscar Piastri to clinch the Sprint win at Qatar.

This was reminiscent of what Michael Schumacher did at the United States Grand Prix back in 2002. The Ferrari driver allowed his teammate Ruben Barrichello to win the race by 0.011 seconds. Schumacher was the one who dominated the race. Schumacher owed Barrichello a race win, as a controversial team order earlier at the Austrian Grand Prix saw him relinquish his lead to allow his teammate to win the race.

The controversial Austrian Grand Prix, which led to a switch-up at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The 2002 Austrian Grand Prix win was a controversial one for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari. Starting from the pole, Barrichello was in command of the entire race and looked destined to win the race. However, in the closing laps of the race, he was asked by Ferrari to move over and allow Schumacher to pass. Well, he didn’t take this command well initially and didn’t budge. But he finally gave up at the very last moment of the race. Coming off the final corner, Schumacher just edged ahead and took the win by two-tenths of a second, which made it one of the closest finishes in F1 history. But this win didn’t go down well with the fans and the media present at the racetrack.

Now swapping places isn’t nothing new to F1 racing, but the manner in which Barrichello relinquished his spot became a talking point. Scenes were indeed ugly, as Michael Schumacher was booed by the crowd as he took the podium. In response, the German driver broke the protocol and insisted Barrichello take first place and the winner’s trophy.

Although FIA couldn’t completely ban the team orders, they dropped the hammer on the team for breach of the podium rules. Ferrari was brandished €1 million and the two drivers involved in the incident. €500 of the amount was paid immediately by the team, while the remainder was suspended for a year provided a similar offense is not repeated for future events.

If Ferrari had not intervened, Ruben Barrichello would’ve won the Austrian Grand Prix. There was a feeling that his win was stolen, and this weighed heavily on Schumacher’s shoulders. The German driver decided to gift his teammate his race win, and he returned the favor at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the United States.

Well, Lando Norris did have the team command to finish the Sprint race with him winning. But, like Schumacher, he decided to repay the favor to his teammate in a manner that the team got maximum points.

Lando Norris defied team orders in handing Piastri the Sprint win

Back in Brazil, when Lando was still in the hunt for the championship, Piastri was the one who handed the Sprint win to his teammate. Although the plan did not work out in their favor, Norris wanted to get even with his teammate. Interestingly, he was instructed to finish in the original order by his team on the radio, but he did what he felt was the right thing to do.

“I know it was a bit closer than what I was wanting. But I planned to do it since Brazil. Just what I thought was best is probably a little bit sketchy,” Lando Norris said after the Sprint race. He wasn’t expecting George Russell to be that close while coming off the final turn. He had to check up and defend his position while Piastri crossed the start-finish line first.

“The team told me not to do it, but I thought I could get away with it, and we did. So honestly, I don’t mind. I’m not here to win sprint races. I’m here to win races and a championship, but that’s not gone to plan. So I did the best we could, and I look forward to tomorrow,” he added.

Ferrari is McLaren’s direct rival in the race for the Constructor’s title. Carlos Sainz once again got better of his teammate and finished 4th, while Charles Leclerc had to be content with a 5th place finish. Combined, they could only add 9 points to their tally, and they will now have to close the gap during the main event. As things stand, McLaren has carved up a 30-point gap between them and Ferrari after the Sprint race in Qatar. So, it will be interesting to see how they respond to this during the race.