McLaren CEO Zak Brown reveals how his team plans to handle the ongoing title battle between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The two teammates have a significant lead in the drivers’ championship after the Hungarian Grand Prix, making it highly likely that the title will be won by a McLaren driver this year. The team is already preparing for this eventuality, particularly in terms of how they will deal with the teammate who doesn’t win.
With an 88-point gap between second-place Lando Norris and third-place Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship, it increasingly seems that the drivers’ title will be heading to Woking this year. The difference between championship leader Oscar Piastri and Norris is only 9 points, meaning the title fight between the McLaren drivers is far from over.
Discussion in Progress
The British team is already preparing for a potential celebration of a first title for one of their drivers. “We still think other drivers are in the title fight, but we’re not naive,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown tells The Race. The British racing team hopes that good preparation will spare the feelings of the losing driver. “We’re just going to sit down and have a conversation and say: ‘Okay, one of you is going to win, it’s going to be the best day of your life – one of you is going to lose, how do you want us to handle that? Do you want us to jump up and down and celebrate this winner?’,” reveals Brown.
The American believes that who out of the two eventually wins, Piastri or Norris, will largely depend on external factors. “It will come down to execution,” Brown continues. “It’s clear that there’s no difference in pace. So it will come down to the consistency of execution, or it could come down to luck: the weather, the safety car, or someone else on the track taking someone out.”
