McLaren has reiterated that it would rather concede the Formula 1 Drivers’ title in 2025 to Max Verstappen than prioritise one driver over the other in the team.
The Woking-based squad’s duo reside in the top two positions with five races to go, with Lando Norris holding a single-point lead over team-mate Oscar Piastri.
However, Norris and Piastri aren’t the sole drivers in contention. Instead, there’s a broader threat to McLaren’s hopes when it comes to a title double: Verstappen.
The Dutchman sits on 321 points, just 36 points adrift from the championship lead, a gap he has narrowed from over 100 points since the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
The four-time champion has mounted a charge since the summer break, which has put him back in the running as a serious title contender and threat to McLaren.
When posed with the threat of Verstappen taking the championship, both McLaren CEO Zak Brown and boss Andrea Stella remained optimistic about its prospects.
“If Max is the champion at the end of the year for us, the important thing is that we can say we have done our best, and we have done our best according to the way we go racing,” Stella told the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“If Max wins this year, we say we’re going to win next year. We’re going to be there, and we are going to be there, united as we are.”
Brown went on to say he would readily congratulate Verstappen should he take a record-equalling fifth consecutive title. “I’d shake his hand and say ‘job well done.”
McLaren willing to risk 2007 repeat
However, amid team orders and slow pit stops, the larger question looms: will it come down to Verstappen winning the championship, or McLaren losing it?
The situation has drawn comparisons to 2007, when Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton’s feud allowed Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to beat both to the crown.
But despite being aware that history could repeat itself this season, Brown insisted that McLaren wants to provide Norris and Piastri with equal opportunities.
“I want to make sure if we don’t win, he beats us, we don’t beat ourselves. That’s important,” he said.
“And we’re well aware of 2007, two drivers tied on points, one [Raikkonen] gets in the front.
“But we’ve got two drivers who want to win the World Championship. We’re playing offence, we’re not playing defence.
“I’d rather go, ‘We did the best we can, and our drivers tied in points, and the other guy beat us by one’ than the alternative, which is telling one of our drivers right now when they’re one point away from each other: ‘I know you have a dream to win the World Championship, but we flipped a coin, and you don’t get to do it this year.’ Forget it. That’s not how we go racing.
“The best way to win the Constructors’ Championship is to finish first and second in the championship, and the best way to win the Drivers’ Championship is to have two drivers going for the Drivers’ Championship.
“In the event 2007 happens again? I’d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. We won’t do it. We’re racers. We’re going racing.”
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