McLaren CEO Zak Brown has admitted that Max Verstappen still poses a threat to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s 2025 Formula 1 title ambitions.
Heading into the final seven races of the season, the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri are engaged in a close fight for their maiden championships.
Norris, who has been with the Woking-based squad since 2019, trails team-mate Piastri by 25 points, with the Australian gunning for the title in only his third full-time season.
That said, Verstappen, who up until the summer break had all but given up on defending his championship, has seen a sharp resurgence and uptick in pace with the RB21.
Coming into the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, the four-time World Champion is on a run of back-to-back wins at Monza and Baku, now sitting 69 points adrift of Piastri.
And while the deficit is substantial, Brown is still wary of the threat the Dutchman poses to his drivers’ championship aspirations.
“I think you have got to pay attention to Max,” he told Bloomberg while calling the 27-year-old a “disruptor”.
“We have got to keep doing what we’re doing. The constructors’ is looking very good. We had a chance to wrap it up in Baku, but let’s not talk back at Baku.
“Hopefully we can get the job done in Singapore.”
Brown clarifies McLaren’s rules of engagement
There has been a lot of talk surrounding the ‘Papaya Rules’ situation at McLaren after the team orders debacle at the Italian Grand Prix.
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella had later clarified that the championship will not be decided on the pit wall.
Brown has now weighed in on the discussion, asserting that the team will always want to give both its drivers an equal opportunity.
“What we want to do is we want our two drivers and Max – but we’d like to kind of get him out of there – to fight for the championship and just give them equal opportunity, equal equipment, which is what we’re doing,” he added.
The American was quick to clarify, however, that while the team will always endeavour to give both Norris and Piastri an equal shot in the title fight, inadvertent incidents, like Norris’ mechanical failure at Zandvoort, will always be a possibility, which could force its hand in making difficult decisions.
“May the best man win. That’s what we want to do. We’d like to not play a role, if at all possible,” contemplated Brown.
“Lando had a mechanical [failure, at Zandvoort] and things can happen, safety cars and things of that nature.
“Our goal is to just set Lando and Oscar up to be competing for the championship down to Abu Dhabi, and may the best driver win.”
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