Oscar Piastri has shut down continued chatter of a rift with McLaren CEO Zak Brown, as the Aussie confirmed the continuation of its ‘team first’ approach in this year’s Formula 1 season.
Piastri will be looking to make good on the positives of his 2025 season, in which he faltered in the final stages, ultimately losing the championship to team-mate Lando Norris.
There was a noticeable drop in Piastri’s form during that stage of the title run-in, losing a 32-point lead to finish behind Norris and Max Verstappen.
It led to accusations of bias from McLaren against Piastri, with an Australian politician even going so far as to raise the subject in its national parliament.
But speaking on the eve of his home Grand Prix, and the season-opener, Piastri insisted that he and Brown enjoy a fruitful working relationship.
“My relationship with Zak is very good, and it’s gotten stronger the longer we’ve known each other,” he told media, including Motorsport Week, in Albert Park.
“He’s certainly good fun and it’s good to have around. Him and Andrea are two people with very different styles that works well together. The relationship between Zak and I is good.
“As a team, we obviously had some tough moments through last year, as any team has, but I think our relationship has only gotten stronger from that.”
Oscar Piastri quashes potential ‘rebellious’ bid to thwart Lando Norris at McLaren
A recurring theme across 2025 was McLaren’s insistence to put its principles of putting the team first before anything else, which, on occasion, was to the detriment of either Piastri or Norris.
Despite Norris securing the championship at the final round when McLaren had largely been dominant all year, McLaren could count itself vindicated, having won its first Drivers’ and Constructors’ title double since 1998.
Piastri revealed that the team has internally discussed where it went wrong in this regard last year, and despite taking ‘learnings’ from it, will continue with the same principles.
“Maybe on some occasions we’ve not always made the perfect decision, but the important part is there’s never been any bad intention with that,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of learning about things we can do differently, things we can do better.
“But I’ve got nothing to prove. I’m certainly not going to have a rebellious streak or anything like that. A pretty quick-fire way to make sure you’re not going to win a championship is go against your own team, so I don’t think that’s a very wise move.
“We’ve had discussions and worked on things we can do better this year.”
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