McLaren boss Zak Brown is confident that Oscar Piastri will become a world champion one day – and says he will do it with McLaren.
This is despite reports of frustration from the Australian and his camp over Brown and the team favouring teammate Lando Norris across the season.
Norris claimed the driver’s championship for the 2025 season in Abu Dhabi, with Piastri finishing third after leading for much of the year.
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There has even been speculation that this season’s frustration could lead to Piastri looking for a new team in the coming years.
Oscar Piastri after the Singapore Grand Prix. Getty
However, Brown is bullish on what the rising star Aussie can achieve with McLaren going forward.
“Oscar is going to be a world champion,” he told Motorsport.com after the Abu Dhabi race.
“I’m convinced he’s going to be a world champion in a McLaren. While we got him a little bit later in his career, we still took a risk on both our drivers. Both times they drove a Formula 1 car, it was a McLaren.
“For a big team to take a risk on young drivers feels very rewarding. To be able to have two number one drivers against all odds, all the noise that we’ve had for so long that it’s impossible to do what we did, which is have two awesome racing drivers that won seven races each, that genuinely enjoy racing each other and are a treat to work with. They’ve never had an odd exchange between them.
“They’ve both been a little grumpy with Andrea [Stella, team principal] and I from time to time, but I think that’s good. We’re pushing each other hard and it’s just such an accomplishment. I’m very proud and looking forward to doing it again.”
Brown’s comments after he drew criticism from world champion driver Nico Rosberg for tone-deaf comments over Piastri’s radio as Norris won the championship.
The next time we see Piastri, Norris and Brown will be in Melbourne, Australia for the first race of the 2026 season.
No doubt it will be very interesting to see the reaction the latter two receive, likely from a sea of fans wearing papaya.