Max\u2019s fourth teammate in two seasons as Red Bull swing axe, new driver joins F1<\/a><\/p>\nPiastri in pit lane, where is McLaren? | 00:12<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to win the Drivers\u2019 Championship. So, we\u2019ll kind of see how the race plays out, but we\u2019re not going to not win the championship because we\u2019re trying to protect a third and a fourth or a sixth and a seventh, or however the situation may play out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a team sport, right? So, we\u2019re trying to win the constructors\u2019 (title) as a team and we\u2019re trying to win the drivers\u2019 as a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that kind of sounds a bit strange, but if one of them can\u2019t win, they want the other to win. And that\u2019s what the team wants. And they are team players and we\u2019ve already seen that last year, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw that in the sprint in Brazil and I think it was Qatar. So, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s unusual in any sport for teammates to make sacrifices for each other to give the team what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth noting Brown is on record as saying he would rather lose the drivers championship to Verstappen than enforce team orders to guarantee either Norris or Piastri the title.<\/p>\n
PIT TALK PODCAST: McLaren manages to turn an easy Oscar Piastri victory into a Max Verstappen cruise, hurting the Australian\u2019s title campaign and cutting Lando Norris\u2019s lead to 12 points over the Dutchman. With three drivers now in contention, what are the permutations for this weekend\u2019s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?<\/p>\n
Asked about the possibility of a repeat of 2007 \u2014 when McLaren had Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in contention for the title, but both ultimately lost it at the final race to Ferrari\u2019s third-placed Kimi Raikkonen \u2014 Brown said: \u201cI\u2019d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t do it. We\u2019re racers. We\u2019re going racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, Piastri wouldn\u2019t say whether or not he would be happy to accept a team order that would amount to, say, him giving up a spot on the podium to win Norris the title.<\/p>\n
He did appear to hint, however, that he was expecting to be told that he\u2019d be put in that position before the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something we\u2019ve discussed,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t really have an answer until I know what\u2019s expected of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Red Bull axe Tsunoda in favour of Hadjar | 00:33<\/p>\n
Norris said that he would \u201clove\u201d being let through, but he wouldn\u2019t ask for it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to Oscar if he would allow it. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily down to me,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the same if it\u2019s the other way around. Would I be willing to or not? Personally, I think I would, just because I feel like I\u2019m always like that, and that\u2019s just how I am.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s not really up to me. I\u2019m not going to ask it. I don\u2019t want to ask it because I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily a fair question.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, if that\u2019s how it ends and Max wins, then, well, that\u2019s it \u2014 congrats to him and I look forward to next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren boss Andrea Stella had already left the door open to team orders in certain conditions in comments after the Qatar Grand Prix, though he emphasised that both Piastri and Norris would be given an equal chance to prove they could get themselves in a title-winning position this weekend.<\/p>\n
But now is when the rubber hits the road on McLaren\u2019s grand plans and on the culture management has built.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the situation won\u2019t arise, but McLaren would\u2019ve been silly not to plan for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren chief Zak Brown has finally revealed the answer to the biggest question in F1 this week, confirming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[944,2095,13273,1724,64,63,689,11308,5175,18241,184389,21779,16177,183947,817,845,813,816,2105,42328,1737,183321,825,913,677,25586,2119,55554,184390,182893,35454,2643,11298,85,183312,31283,174092,67738,183324,183306,29994,12000,2086],"class_list":["post-329213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-america","tag-andrea-stella","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-brazil","tag-chief-executive-officer","tag-clive-rose","tag-dodges-question","tag-drivers-championship","tag-drivers-title","tag-drivers-constructors-title","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-jacob-polychronis","tag-lando-norris","tag-marina-circuit","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren","tag-oceania","tag-pit-lane","tag-pit-talk","tag-point-spread","tag-race-plays","tag-receiving-praise","tag-season-finale","tag-sky-sports","tag-south-america","tag-sports","tag-swing-axe","tag-team-orders","tag-team-players","tag-team-sport","tag-title-scenario","tag-united-arab","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-western-asia","tag-world-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329213","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=329213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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