McLaren CEO Zak Brown couldn’t resist landing a brutal Alpine joke on his drivers at a team celebratory event.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris came in for some ribbing from McLaren CEO Zak Brown, following the team’s victories in the Constructors’ and Drivers’ World Championships.
Zak Brown roasts Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Following on from the FIA Prize-Giving Gala in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in which McLaren’s senior management and drivers appeared to collect their trophies for F1 2025, the team held its own homecoming event at its factory in Woking.
Appearing in black tie suits with their newly-collected trophies, video footage has emerged on social media from the event, in which Norris and Piastri are ‘roasted’ by their boss through a series of jokes and quips.
One particular joke has gone viral on social media, in which the American executive lands a tongue-in-cheek jibe at both of his stars.
“We took big risks on both of you, and don’t pretend you had better options!” he said.
“You [Piastri] had f**king Alpine, and you [Norris] had to go faster than Stoffel Vandoorne!”
Brown’s jokes were met with amusement by the gathered McLaren employees and the two drivers, with Piastri having jumped ship from Alpine following an announcement from the Enstone-based team in 2022 that the Australian was set to rise from its development programme into the race team.
Piastri’s case against Alpine went before the Contract Recognition Board, which ruled in his favour.
The joke aimed at Norris referred to the British driver being given the nod for a race seat in 2019, with Brown opting against continuing with the Belgian driver Stoffel Vandoorne after a subdued 2018 season.
Other jokes aimed at his drivers saw Brown say, “I couldn’t dream of having a better driver lineup on and off the track.
Two fastest guys in the world and nicest. That’s the McLaren way. Proper racers like us, which stands for how we race. You guys are almost a unicorn combo.
“Then again, maybe we’ll be up here next year saying, ‘f**k that guy.’
“Anyways. Won’t come to that. Both drivers love me, idolise me, and call me ‘Big Daddy’ behind my back.
“Reality is they’ll mess with me, but they won’t mess with Andrea [Stella] ‘cause, deep down inside, they’re scared s**tless of Andrea.”
In the good-natured speech, Brown also jovially made fun of some recent incidents in which FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has purposely ruffled Norris’ carefully-styled hair, daring Piastri to do the same.
“What I really wanna do is mess up Lando’s hair right now, but I’m gonna dare Oscar and see how big his balls really are!” he said, to which Piastri tentatively reached out to ruffle his teammate’s hair.
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