{"id":44696,"date":"2025-08-05T06:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T06:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44696\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T06:39:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T06:39:13","slug":"mclaren-boss-zak-brown-addresses-sensitive-oscar-piastri-situation-with-lando-norris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44696\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren boss Zak Brown addresses \u2018sensitive\u2019 Oscar Piastri situation with Lando Norris"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren chief Zak Brown is preparing to deal with disappointment at the end of the Formula One<\/a> season, even as the team enjoy one of their most dominant years and a 200th grand prix win at the weekend.<\/p>\n

As the title battle between Australia\u2019s Oscar Piastri and teammate Lando Norris heats up \u2014 the McLaren pair are separated by just nine points after Sunday\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix \u2014 the boss conceded he was thinking also about how to handle the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s reigning champion Max Verstappen, the McLaren drivers\u2019 closest rival, is now 97 points off the pace and told reporters at the weekend that he may not win again this year given problems with his car.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

Even before the weekend, both Piastri and Norris cast caution aside and called it a two-horse race.<\/p>\n

One of them will surely end the year celebrating a dream come true.<\/p>\n

But the other will rue what might have been, with a new engine era next season shaking everything up again and chances potentially disappearing.<\/p>\n

Losing always hurts, doubly so when it is to a teammate with the same car, and Brown said McLaren would have to deal with the situation sensitively when \u2014 although he still insisted on saying if \u2014 the time came.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually… we\u2019ll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go, \u2018right, one of you is going to win and it\u2019s going to be the best day of your life. One of you is going to lose. How do you want us to handle that?\u2019,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll actually sit down and go, \u2018Right, you want us to jump up and down and celebrate? This guy won\u2019. So we\u2019re fully aware and sensitive to how do you celebrate that situation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OscarOscar Piastri finished second to one-stopping teammate Lando Norris. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Piastri has won six races to Norris\u2019s five but the Briton has momentum going into the August break, with three wins from his last four starts.<\/p>\n

The pair have had seven one-two finishes from 14 races, including the last four, and have left rivals trailing.<\/p>\n

McLaren are so far ahead in the constructors\u2019 standings \u2014 299 points over Ferrari \u2014 that the crown is a given.<\/p>\n

Much has been made of the potential for a falling out between friends, but Brown was sanguine and said the relationship was only growing stronger.<\/p>\n

When Norris ran into the back of Piastri as he challenged for the lead in Canada in June, the Briton defused the situation by immediately taking responsibility.<\/p>\n

Piastri locked up behind Norris in Hungary on Sunday, and though no contact was made, race engineer Tom Stallard warned the Australian on the team radio: \u201cRemember how we go racing, Oscar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown said the drivers have complete transparency on strategy and how the team go about racing, and he expected more close calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s competitiveness brewing… as the championship builds, I\u2019m sure that tension will grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fully anticipating them \u2018swapping paint\u2019 again at some point. I\u2019m very confident it won\u2019t be deliberate, which is where you then get into the problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will have racing incidents in their further time here at McLaren, we know that and they know that, so we\u2019re not afraid of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m positive they\u2019re never going to run each other off the track, and that\u2019s where you get into bad blood. So they\u2019re free to race… there are rules around our racing, which is respect your teammate, they know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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