Zak Brown fired a final rebuttal at an Australian politician after claims made during the tail end of the 2025 Formula 1 season that McLaren was favouring Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri.
Piastri was leading the Drivers’ Championship by over 30 points during the final third of the campaign, when various incidents and results saw his advantage dissipate.
These included the controversial team orders episode at Monza, when Piastri was asked to let Norris through, having taken second place off him due to a botched pit stop.
And in Qatar, a general strategic blunder by McLaren saw both Piastri – who was leading the race – and Norris fall behind title rival Max Verstappen, who went on to win.
It led Senator Matt Canavan to go as far as raising the question of whether McLaren was favouring Norris in Australia’s parliament.
Brown hit back at the time, describing Canavan as “uneducated”, and this week, ahead of the launch of the Woking-based squad‘s new MCL40, the American was asked about the topic once again.
“I think fans – put aside countries – all have various opinions in sport,” he told select media, including Motorsport Week.
“It can be frustrating when some people – and again, this isn’t country specific – are very uninformed and the statements you see are just ridiculous.
“But I don’t think that’s territory specific.
“I think, as Oscar has communicated many times, he knows he’s getting a fair shake at it. You win some you lose some. Things fall your way, things don’t fall your way.
“We lost Oscar some points, we lost Lando a lot of points in Holland, etc
“I think we just need to keep our head down, stay focused and the people that matter most to us know that we bring total sporting fairness to our racing team, our papaya fans and our sponsors, family and friends.”
Oscar Piastri comments prove ‘far removed’ position on F1 knowledge
Brown continued that he would not make similar assertions about Canavan’s job, if the tables were turn.
“It’s a shame that people in parliament, who I would say are pretty far removed from understanding Formula 1, vocalise things like that,” he said.
“I wouldn’t dare, because I’m not knowledgeable, comment on the job they’re doing.
“But I bet I can make some comments.”
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