McLaren boss Zak Brown has stated that the constant threat of Max Verstappen will keep the racing rules in place, despite the team securing the constructors’ title in Singapore two weeks ago.
Oscar Piastri leads his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, by 22 points and the current world champion, Verstappen, by 63 points, with six races remaining, starting with the United States Grand Prix in Texas this Sunday.
McLaren has maintained a delicate line this season in trying to keep the battle between Piastri and Norris fair. Last year, Brown and team boss Andrea Stella called the racing guidelines that their drivers must follow the “papaya rules”, referring to the orange tone that made the cars built by founder Bruce McLaren famous.
The rules have been in the news since the summer break: Piastri was asked to move aside and let Norris pass at the end of the Italian Grand Prix after the Englishman had a slow pit stop. The Australian was also frustrated in Singapore when Norris almost pushed him against the wall at the start with an aggressive maneuver for position.
Brown added: “Our strategy is not going to change because we have won the constructors’, we are going to approach the remaining race weekends in the same way that we have approached all the previous ones.” He added: “That’s what we’re here for: to win races and win championships. And we couldn’t be hungrier.” McLaren’s consecutive titles come after a long period of drought that extended into the last century. Until last year, they hadn’t won the constructors’ championship since 1998. Piastri and Norris hope to become the team’s first drivers’ champion since Mika Hakkinen in 1999. Before that, McLaren had dominated with a streak of championships between 1988 and 1992, one of the most successful periods any team has achieved. A rule change is coming next year, a new set of rules on both the aerodynamic and engine sides of the car, and Brown downplays the idea of replicating that old era. “Do we want to create a McLaren dynasty and leave a legacy? Of course we do,” Brown added. “But it’s like Andrea says: ‘You don’t race trying to create a legacy, you show up every weekend, focused on what you need to do that weekend, and then, the results and the history books take care of themselves.’ “Next year, with the new regulations, it’s going to be even more difficult. This year, we had the benefit of working within regulations we knew. But now we are entering a new era, with one of the biggest regulatory changes in F1 history, that entails a lot of risk and a lot of opportunity.”“While we would like it to come down to our two guys, Max is still very much in play,” Brown said on the McLaren website. “I think the key is that the team has remained very focused but also very humble. So we are going to keep doing what we are doing.”
Zak Brown
