McLaren CEO Zak Brown has dismissed claims that the team has been ‘overmanaging’ both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri across this year’s Formula 1 championship.
Norris heads into next weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix with a 24-point lead over Piastri, who had been leading the standings from Saudi Arabia all the way up until Mexico.
In that time, the pair have been involved in a titanic contest which has seen terrific on-track action, plus a little bit of contact and contention for extra spice.
Amid the more testy moments, such as Canada, Monza and Singapore, the Woking-based squad has been quick to fire up its well-oiled PR machine, tuned around its admirable ‘team first’ principles.
It appears that the mentality McLaren has taken will be 100 percent vindicated, as the Constructors’ Championship has been long sewn-up, and with Max Verstappen further on the periphery, it looks as if one of Norris or Piastri will come out the victor.
But in that time, there has been accusations of the team has, by default, causing itself a headache, with drivers such as Alex Albon suggesting prioritising one driver over the other might be a beneficial solution.
But speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast prior to Norris’ Sao Paulo triumph, Brown was asked how he deals with these ‘overmanaging’ accusations.
“Ignore them,” he replied.
“We are so focused on ourselves and doing the right thing and the commitment we’ve made to the racing team, our sponsor partners, our shareholders and our fans, but not everyone can be as informed as we are.
“I think the reason why you see such a great relationship between Lando and Oscar is they know they have equal opportunity to win the world championship – and we’re transparent, we’re fair, we communicate.
“We’re not perfect, but we’re racers, and they know that. So there’s all this noise around, but we don’t let that noise come inside the MTC [McLaren Technology Centre].”
Stella likens McLaren drivers to ‘two sons’
In more recent weeks, it has been suggested that Norris is being favoured somewhat over Piastri, perhaps pertaining to his longstanding relationship with the team, in comparison to Piastri, who joined from Alpine in 2023.
Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone even suggested this, claiming the team was “slowing down” Piastri.
But Team Principal Andrea Stella was dismissive, likening his two drivers to having “two sons” and being asked to choose one as his favourite.
“The same kind of commitment to the team, the same sort of all-in [mentality] to the team, full support to the team, it did come from Oscar as well,” he said.
“When you are in my role, it’s like when you have two sons, and somebody says, ‘which one is your preferred son?’ Yeah, but they are my two sons! How can you say which one is the preferred one?
“So, sometimes, when I hear or read some comments of this kind, I find them really very superficial, and I think that sometimes, people don’t really understand what it means to have two drivers that are with you together in this journey in Formula 1, so I just feel very grateful to both, in fairness.”
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