Papaya obligation 🥭🏁

McLaren car liveries once featured papaya orange until cigarette sponsorship started to fund motor racing. But cancer is nowadays A Bad Thing and eventually papaya returned. But at the same time, Max Verstappen's fans all wear orange, which gives us the plesant irony that supporters of all three likely winners are wearing the same colour.

This year McLaren are way ahead of the rest, so the races could be dull if their two drivers can't fight each other. Happily, they seem keen and able to fulfill this obligation. In Canada they had a beautiful moment. Norris dived in front of Piastri, surprisingly but not decisively, and they were side by side on the longest fastest straight. It was an edge-of-the-seat moment. Surely they can't keep this up? Piastri was back ahead at the next chicane, but slow off the corner. Then Norris just... knocked his front wing off on the back of Piastri. Excitement was deflated.

In Austria, Norris qualified first by a big margin. But Piastri wasn't having that, and hounded him for the first third of the race, constantly threatening to pass, and even doing so at one point, but in an echo of the previous race, not decisively, and Norris got back past. This time there was no touching. Then there were pit stops, and the race calmed down.

So to make a race fun, you only need two drivers to contend for the lead. Thanks heavens we've got that, because we haven't seen it for the last few years while Verstappen won everything with ease.