{"id":264076,"date":"2025-11-05T20:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264076\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T20:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T20:35:10","slug":"mclaren-ready-to-accept-defeat-if-verstappen-wins-2025-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264076\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren ready to accept defeat if Verstappen wins 2025 title!"},"content":{"rendered":"

After acknowledging Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s chances to snatch the Driver\u2019s crown away from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren<\/a> higher-ups Andrea Stella<\/a> and Zak Brown<\/a> have said what they would do should that scenario eventually play out.\u201cI want to make sure if we don\u2019t win, he beats us, we don\u2019t beat ourselves. That\u2019s important.\u201d- Zak Brown.In five race weekends Verstappen has slashed the McLaren drivers\u2019 lead in the championship standings down to 36 points<\/a>, from a 104 points deficit, setting himself up for what would be the biggest upset in the sport\u2019s history.Having previously admitted the reigning world champion is very much a protagonist in the fight for the 2025 Drivers\u2019 title<\/a>, Stella and Brown have answered the Beyond the Grid podcast host Tom Clarkson\u2019s question as to what would be McLaren\u2019s course of action should Verstappen win the title.<\/p>\n

Stella said: \u201cIf Max is the champion at the end of the year for us, the important thing is that we can say we have done our best, and we have done our best according to the way we go racing.<\/p>\n

\"andrea-stella-mclaren\"\/<\/p>\n

Andrea Stella stands fast on McLaren’s racing principles. Photo: RacePictures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Max wins this year, we say we\u2019re going to win next year. We\u2019re going to be there, and we are going to be there, united as we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Brown it was more a matter of the style of the loss more than the defeat itself. He added: \u201cI\u2019d shake his hand and say \u2018job well done\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make sure if we don\u2019t win, he beats us, we don\u2019t beat ourselves. That\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acknowledging that a potential 2007 scenario could play out in the McLaren garage, where then McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, following a fierce internal rivalry, lost the championship to Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen by one point in the last race of the season, at Brazil of all places, Brown argued that they would not change their philosophy out of respect for Norris\u2019 and Piastri\u2019s title dream.<\/p>\n

\"verstappen-after-cota-jpg\"\/<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen after the US Grand Prix – Photo: Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cAnd we\u2019re well aware of 2007, two drivers tie on points, one [Raikkonen] gets in the front. But, we\u2019ve got two drivers who want to win the world championship. We\u2019re playing offence, we\u2019re not playing defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather go \u2018we did the best we can, and our drivers tied in points, and the other guy beat us by one\u2019 than the alternative, which is telling one of our drivers right now when they\u2019re one point away from each other: \u2018I know you have a dream to win the world championship, but we flipped a coin, and you don\u2019t get to do it this year.\u2019 Forget it. That\u2019s not how we go racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event 2007 happens again? I\u2019d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. We won\u2019t do it. We\u2019re racers. We\u2019re going racing,\u201d Brown concluded.<\/p>\n

Schumacher thinks Piastri could wind up at Aston Martin<\/p>\n

Ralf Schumacher says Oscar Piastri could consider leaving McLaren if trust has broken down, calling it a clear sign for consequences.<\/p>\n

The former F1<\/a> driver suggests Aston Martin as a strong option, claiming the team is currently window-shopping for a new driver, whilst also nominating Charles Leclerc as another potential target. Read Schumacher’s full statements here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1 paddock? Then GPblog’s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog’s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After acknowledging Max Verstappen\u2019s chances to snatch the Driver\u2019s crown away from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-264076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}