{"id":211516,"date":"2025-10-14T01:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211516\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T01:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T01:03:10","slug":"mclaren-boss-zak-brown-says-max-verstappen-a-title-threat-papaya-rules-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/211516\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren boss Zak Brown says Max Verstappen a title threat, papaya rules comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> CEO Zak Brown has admitted he believes that Max Verstappen<\/a> is still a live threat to his team’s in-house Formula 1<\/a> title fight. <\/p>\n

But Brown stands firm in his decision to conduct ‘papaya rules’ in the final eight races in the 2025 season, even with the Red Bull<\/a> driver breathing down the team’s neck. <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri<\/a> currently leads the driver standings with 336 points from his teammate Lando Norris<\/a> 22 points behind and Verstappen in third, 63 points from the top. <\/p>\n

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\"Zak<\/p>\n

Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, and Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing congratulate each other in Parc Ferme.\u00a0LAT Images<\/p>\n

“While we’d like it to solely come down to our two guys, Max is still very much in the game,” Brown said.<\/p>\n

“I think what has been key is that the team have remained so focused but also very humble.<\/p>\n

“So, we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing.<\/p>\n

“Our strategy isn’t going to change because we’ve won the Constructors’, we’re going to approach the remaining race weekends in the same way we’ve approached every one before it.<\/p>\n

“That’s what we’re here to do: win races and win championships.<\/p>\n

“And we couldn’t be hungrier.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The McLaren F1 Team celebrates its 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship victory in the pit lane with champagne following the 2025 Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.\u00a0NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

His insight into how McLaren is going to prioritise their drivers going into the final races has sparked confusion.<\/p>\n

With three sprint race victories up for grabs, an additional 24 points are to be awarded.<\/p>\n

That’s nearly an entire race win and points that could swing the championship pendulum.<\/p>\n

After the Singapore Grand Prix<\/a>, multiple arguments started online about the perceived prioritisation of Norris during the race when the teammates came together on the opening lap<\/a> and Piastri was made to hold position.<\/p>\n

“That’s not fair. That’s not fair,” Piastri fumed over his radio to his race engineer.<\/p>\n

“If he [Norris] has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate, then that’s a pretty s–t job of avoiding.”<\/p>\n

As the teammates squabbled for places, Verstappen easily sailed into second place and added another 18 points to the McLaren deficit. <\/p>\n

Rumours have flown about the Australian driver jumping ship to other F1 teams, but paddock figures have argued that the 24-year-old should not move hastily<\/a> as he has won two constructors’ championships with the team. <\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri stand on the podium during the Race of the Formula 1 PIRELLI Gran Premio d’Italia 2025.\u00a0NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brown himself has also not had a restful gap between Singapore and the upcoming race in Texas.<\/p>\n

Instead the team CEO has been locked in an intense legal battle with IndyCar champion Alex Palou.<\/p>\n

Palou claimed the Brown lied to the Spaniard about his F1 opportunities and boldly argued that the 53-year-old told him that he did not chose Piastri for the team’s second seat in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For McLaren, their weekend in Texas will determine their ability to hold onto the drivers’ championship – something that has eluded their grasp to Verstappen in recent years.<\/p>\n

The United States Grand Prix will begin this weekend on October 18. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren CEO Zak Brown has admitted he believes that Max Verstappen is still a live threat to his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-211516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}