{"id":122010,"date":"2025-05-22T08:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T08:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122010\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T08:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T08:07:08","slug":"why-zak-brown-is-willing-to-lose-f1-2025-drivers-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122010\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Zak Brown is willing to lose F1 2025 Drivers’ Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has highlighted his squad\u2019s commitment to absolute fairness between its drivers in an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sitting first and second in the Championship after seven races, ahead of the relentless Max Verstappen in third, McLaren has a shot at claiming its first drivers\u2019 crown since Lewis Hamilton\u2019s maiden title in 2008.<\/p>\n

Zak Brown insists equality must come before glory<\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenge Brown and team principal Andrea Stella face is how to manage the individual ambitions of their highly competitive drivers.<\/p>\n

Formula 1 is a team sport, with the major squads employing over a thousand staff whose combined efforts are pooled in support of two individuals.<\/p>\n

McLaren has consciously and deliberately hired two top-tier drivers in Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, both of whom have proved capable of delivering race wins and, potentially, world championships.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a break from the norm in F1 where most leading outfits have tended to focus their efforts on one driver, with the second there to play a supporting role \u2013 history has shown fielding two top-tier drivers is troublesome, at best.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not lost on Brown, though he holds a pragmatic view that places the emphasis on McLaren\u2019s ambitions first and the drivers\u2019 second.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to win the Constructors\u2019 is to finish first and second in the Drivers\u2019, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Brown told PlanetF1.com.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, the way to let the drivers decide who\u2019s first and second is by treating them fully, fairly, transparently.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019ll notice last race [Imola], Oscar went out first in Q3. The race before, Lando went out first in Q3.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen upgrades come, if one gets it one weekend \u2013 because we can\u2019t deliver both \u2013 then the other gets it the other weekend, and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s not possible to offer like-for-like, efforts are made to ensure equality in the broader sense is achieved through other tangible means.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s a critical question that is raised by such an equalised approach; at what point does the team break away from that mantra and focus its efforts on one of its drivers?<\/p>\n

In F1 2024, Piastri leant his support to Norris when necessary; moving aside in the Sao Paulo GP Sprint so the Briton could maximise his points haul over then-championship rival Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Piastri was, by then, out of contention for the title and so having him work in support of his colleague made sense.<\/p>\n

In Qatar, with the title fight over, Norris returned the favour in a move that underscored how deeply the notion of fairness has been engrained within the team.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a noble quality, but one that could ultimately lead to an incredible outcome \u2013 one Brown is fully aware of.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s quite an easy thing to work through,\u201d Brown explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur drivers aren\u2019t asking for favouritism, they\u2019re asking for fairness, and that\u2019s what they get.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re very comfortable; may the best man win.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we give them a car in an environment where you\u2019re going into the last race and it\u2019s the two of them competing, and they didn\u2019t take points off each other to the point where it lets Max [Verstappen] or someone else get in there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if so, then whoever wins the Drivers\u2019 Championship has done a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, Brown values fairness and equality of opportunity for his drivers above individual success for either.<\/p>\n

Put another way, he\u2019s prepared to see neither of his drivers win the title rather than deny one the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable with that,\u201d Brown insists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m comfortable with that because the other scenario is, how do you take a driver out of the championship that\u2019s competing for the championship? That\u2019s not right at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had a second driver that wasn\u2019t competing for the championship, then I get it; sacrifice [Yuki] Tsunoda\u2019s qualifying because he\u2019s giving Max a tow or whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get compromising the second car at Red Bull because it\u2019s not competing for the Drivers\u2019 Championship, so it\u2019s an easy decision to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you\u2019ve got two drivers first and second in the championship and are separated by less than one second place finish, how do you possibly even consider standing one down into a supporting role?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just no way we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As the championship stands, Verstappen sits third, just nine points away from Norris, who is 13 down in Piastri.<\/p>\n

Victory in Imola last weekend saw the four-time world champion inch his way closer to the Aussie at the top of the standings, while second and third for McLaren meant Brown\u2019s team strode further clear in the Constructors\u2019 Championship.<\/p>\n

Success in that competition brings with it significant prize money benefits that can do wonders to a team\u2019s balance sheet.<\/p>\n

By winning last year\u2019s Constructors\u2019 Championship, McLaren is this year entitled to the largest slice of the prize money pie from Formula One Management.<\/p>\n

That figure is tied to the annual revenue generated by the sport\u2019s commercial rights holder, but last year Red Bull brought in more than $250 million courtesy of it winning the 2023 title.<\/p>\n

With the sport\u2019s commercial side expected to continue growing this year, McLaren is set to pocket somewhere north of that sum over the course of F1 2025.<\/p>\n

Success again this year would maintain that earning power through F1 2026.<\/p>\n

With such significant income linked directly to Constructors\u2019 Championship success, it\u2019s no wonder\u00a0the emphasis is placed on the teams\u2019 competition despite the drivers\u2019 title carrying greater prestige.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say Brown doesn\u2019t value the Drivers\u2019 Championship, quite the opposite, but delivering it in a manner in-keeping with values of the team overrides that ambition \u2013 a view he insists both Piastri and Norris share.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur view is, until it becomes clear that one driver has a significantly better chance than another, which we made that call last year, we\u2019re never going to favour one driver when both are fighting for the championship,\u201d Brown insisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, from a Constructors\u2019 [Championship position], that only benefits us.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously from a Drivers\u2019, you could say Max has 110 percent support, so he probably gets a few extra points because his teammate is there to support him where our guys can take points off each other \u2013 which is exactly what happened in \u201907 when we didn\u2019t win the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2007, Kimi Raikkonen swooped the title out from under Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton as the then-McLaren teammates finished tied on points, one shy of their championship-winning Ferrari rival.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s plausible that such a scenario could happen again, with Verstappen nipping and Norris\u2019 heels and within striking distance of Piastri too.<\/p>\n

But Brown is adamant that he doesn\u2019t want success for one of his drivers to come at the team-imposed expense of another.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur drivers want to win it by beating their 19 competitors,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s also an aspect of, until you get to a point where it\u2019s clear, and I\u2019m optimistic and hopeful this doesn\u2019t happen, I would prefer having two drivers fighting for one championship than having one play a supporting rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut our drivers have both said they want to win the championship by beating everyone, including their teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re less interested in winning it because we\u2019ve stood a teammate down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Zak Brown\u2019s amazing car collection: The legendary machines owned by the McLaren team boss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has highlighted his squad\u2019s commitment to absolute fairness between its drivers in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,1710,12,79,16,15,40707],"class_list":{"0":"post-122010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-mclaren","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-zak-brown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114550462466545182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}