McLaren boss Andrea Stella has accepted the team’s ‘papaya rules’ have made things difficult between their drivers, but urged them to be proud to be within the position where team orders are even needed.

Lando Norris won the F1 Sprint race in Brazil after Oscar Piastri let him past, and Stella conceded the situation isn’t easy to cope with.

“Making life difficult for ourselves is natural, because when you have two drivers that can win races and a car that can win races, this first thing you have to accept is there’s not an easy solution,” he told Motorsport.com.

“That already sets you in a good mindset to deal with the potential difficulties.

“But, like I have said already in the past, we have worked very hard to put ourselves in this difficult situation – and we are all on the same page: team and drivers.

“I always discuss with the drivers, and say that this is the most difficult thing we are going to face in our career, because this is the only thing that we cannot face by having our interests exactly matching.”