Zak Brown: Verstappen Keeps the Pressure on McLaren
McLaren boss Zak Brown has stated that the constant threat of Max Verstappen will keep the racing rules in place for the team, despite having secured 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 to finish the season, starting with the United States Grand Prix in Texas this Sunday. McLaren has maintained a delicate balance this season, seeking to make the battle between Piastri and Norris fair. Last year, Brown and team boss Andrea Stella called the race guidelines that their drivers must follow “papaya rules”, referring to the orange tone that made Bruce McLaren, the team’s founder, famous. The rules have been in the news since the summer break: Piastri was asked to yield to Norris 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’ championship, we are going to face the remaining race weekends in the same way that we have faced all the previous ones.” He also 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 Lewis Hamilton in 2008. McLaren dominated with a series of championships between 1988 and 1992, one of the most successful periods any team has achieved. Next year a regulation change is coming, a new set of rules both in the aerodynamic aspect and in the car’s engines, 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,” added Brown. “But it’s like Andrea says: ‘You don’t compete 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 regulation changes in F1 history, which entails a lot of risk and a lot of opportunity.”“While we’d like it to come down to our two guys, Max is still very much in the game,” Brown commented on the McLaren website. “I think the key has been that the team has remained very focused, but also very humble. So we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Zak Brown
