McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed the team will discuss how the team will celebrate the likely Formula 1 title victory of one of its two drivers.
Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are in prime contention for the Drivers’ Championship and one of them, barring some unforeseen miracle, will emerge as the victor.
The Woking-based squad has been concise and articulate in its approach to how the two men have and will do battle for supremacy, being allowed to race without detriment to the team.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella has often spoken about the open conversations the team has had about how Piastri and Norris have been duelling for victory.
And now it appears that it is also forming a plan for how the team will mark the occasion of either one taking their first title, to ensure it is handled sensitively.
“We’ll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go ‘Right, one of you is going to win, it’s going to be the best day of your life – one of you is going to lose, how do you want us to handle that?” Brown told The Race. “You want us to jump up and down and celebrate this guy [who] won?
“We’re fully aware and sensitive to how you celebrate that situation.
“And I think we’ll just sit down with the drivers and come to an agreement: ‘One of you is not going to be the champion. How do you want us to act?’.
“That’s the way we think. It comes back to thinking about our people.”
Brown keen to break the ice with McLaren drivers
Brown explained how he feels any awkward situations similar to this likely eventuality should be dealt with, citing a particular moment after the British Grand Prix.
With Piastri losing out to Norris at Silverstone, Brown revealed how he was able to raise a laugh out of the Australian, and it seems he may be key in ensuring team harmony is maintained.
“Clearly, he was upset. Understandable,” he recalled. “And I tend to get – which is going to surprise all of you! – some stuff from social media, from fans.
“I got one note in particular, which was pretty off the charts. And so I’m walking with Oscar to the fanzone, and I was like, ‘Dude, you didn’t have to send me this note’! Because it was a pretty aggressive note from an Oscar fan. And I got a giggle out of him.
“And I was like, ‘All right, good. We’re just starting to kind of break the ice’.
“I’m a believer in dealing with stuff in the moment, if you can fix it in the moment – or if it’s something that you can’t fix in the moment, maybe you need to just let everyone cool down and deal with it on Monday. Maybe let’s just let everyone take the temperature down.”
Brown also said that he acts as a buffer of humour between the two drivers, and made the point that taking their feelings into account is essential
“I always try and break the ice,” he continued. “Kind of goof around a little bit with the drivers.
“So when I got the chuckle out of Oscar, it was like, ‘All right, good, we’re in the calming down phase’, right?
“That’s understanding the people here. But we have thought about it, I’ve thought about how do you deal with the winner and the loser, if you’d like.
“And that’ll just be a conversation we have with the drivers and go, ‘How would you like us to conduct ourselves?’ Because we’ll be very considerate about that approach.”
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