{"id":329441,"date":"2025-12-05T13:11:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329441\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T13:11:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:11:56","slug":"zak-brown-denies-mclaren-f1-team-orders-are-a-u-turn-on-papaya-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329441\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Brown denies McLaren F1 team orders are a U-turn on papaya rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> Racing CEO Zak Brown has denied McLaren\u2019s potential team orders at Formula 1\u2019s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix may be a U-turn on the squad\u2019s \u2018papaya rules\u2019.<\/p>\n

McLaren has made a point of treating its drivers as fairly as possible, to the extent that it even swapped them around in the Italian Grand Prix after a botched pitstop for Lando Norris<\/a> gave the edge to his team-mate Oscar Piastri<\/a>. These are the lengths the team has been willing to go to in that prospect.<\/p>\n

McLaren is insisting that Piastri will be given every chance to win the title at Yas Marina, but he will still be asked to let Norris through if that makes the difference between McLaren winning or losing the title against Red Bull challenger Max Verstappen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the sense of team orders, as long as both drivers have a chance to win the world championship \u2013 which they clearly do sitting here right now \u2013 then it’s business as usual, they’re free to race,\u201d Brown commented in Friday\u2019s FIA press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019ll be practical and realistic. If, as the weekend develops, as the race develops, it becomes clear that one has a significantly better chance than another, then we’re a team that wants to win the drivers’ championship, and we will race accordingly to do whatever we can to get whatever that driver is in front to try and win the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team orders have been around giving equal opportunity to win the championship, but as the race plays out, if it becomes clear that both can’t, then we’re going to do what’s in the best interest of the team and try and win the drivers’ championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he would say to people accusing McLaren of doing a U-turn on the way it has gone racing so far, Brown replied: \u201cI don’t think it’s a U-turn. We’re going to start the weekend like we have the other 23, which is going in giving both drivers equal opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bagnall \/ Sutton Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI think last year, once it became clear that Lando had the best chance to catch Max and Oscar was almost statistically out of it in Baku, we then asked Oscar to support Lando and [it] ended up being Lando supported Oscar in that particular race and Oscar won the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we’re going to use common sense. We’re not going to throw away a drivers\u2019 championship over a sixth and a seventh place, a third and a fourth place, a fifth and a sixth place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one of our drivers doesn’t have the opportunity, I think everything we do, we do with the drivers. So they know what the game plan is for this weekend, and outside of our racing team you’re a bit damned if you do, damned if you don’t. So we’re going to just stay true to our racing principles. We want to win the constructors\u2019, which we’ve done. We want to win the drivers\u2019, and so we’ll see how the race plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Then the main question is: if that specific situation occurs, will Piastri comply with a team order?<\/p>\n

The Australian was elusive when this was brought up to him on Thursday, stating he needed to \u2018know what would be expected of him\u2019 before he could provide an answer.<\/p>\n

Brown, however, is confident. \u201cYes, our drivers have always complied with team wishes just as we comply with their wishes,\u201d he insisted. \u201cSo, I’ve got no doubt either of our drivers will continue to race as they’ve done brilliantly in the best interest of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos from Abu Dhabi GP – Practice<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has denied McLaren\u2019s potential team orders at Formula 1\u2019s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[182715,64,63,817,183488,813,816,913,85,184474],"class_list":["post-329441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi-gp","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-abu-dhabi-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-sports","tag-zak-brown-denies-mclaren-f1-team-orders-are-a-u-turn-on-papaya-rules"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329441","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=329441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}