McLaren CEO Zak Brown has said the team is willing to risk losing out to Max Verstappen to ensure both drivers are given an equal chance to win the Formula 1 title.
Having claimed the Constructors’ Championship two weeks ago in Singapore, McLaren’s attention over the remaining six races is now on closing out the Drivers’ title.
But while a championship double looked inevitable going into the summer break, Red Bull’s recent resurgence has propelled Verstappen back into outside contention.
Verstappen has outscored both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris across the previous three rounds, which included consecutive dominant victories at Monza and Baku.
That has seen the reigning World Champion reduce the gap to Norris ahead to 41 points, with the Briton lagging another 22 points behind McLaren team-mate Piastri.
However, Brown has disclosed that the Woking-based squad harbours no plans as it stands to prioritise one driver over the other to guard against Verstappen’s threat.
“Well, I think we’re one race at a time,” Brown told media including Motorsport Week. “I’ve been asked a lot to predict the future.
“I think where we’re sitting right now is Max is too close for comfort.
“Lando is one win, Oscar one DNF away. We saw what happened in Holland [when Norris retired], how quickly things can change.
“So we’re just focused on this weekend, which is trying to get our drivers to finish first and second in the race, and we’ll continue to evaluate on a race-by-race basis.
“If we get to a situation – and that’s what we did last year in Baku – to start helping Lando, then what ends up happening is Oscar goes and wins the race and Lando helps him.
“So this is a pretty unpredictable sport. But where we sit right now, we’re going to give both drivers equal opportunity to try and win the Drivers’ Championship.”
McLaren prepared to endure 2007 repeat
The situation has prompted similarities to 2007, when internal drama at McLaren allowed Kimi Raikkonen to edge Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton to the crown.
Despite accepting that a repeat could transpire this season, Brown has claimed that limiting one driver’s opportunities would be against the side’s approach to racing.
“Hey, look. That’s the risk, right? If you have two drivers like in 2007, where they equalled in points and Kimi barely beat them,” he recalled.
“But that’s how McLaren want to go racing. We want to have two drivers that are capable of winning the championship.
“On the flip side, when you get into one and two, that compromises your Constructors’ Championship.
“So it’s a difficult sport. We’re racers. We want to go racing. We want both drivers to have a chance to win the championship, and that comes with some risk – like 2007.
“But we’re all aware of that and prepared that that could potentially be an outcome.”
READ MORE – How Red Bull is handling Max Verstappen’s renewed F1 title bid
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