Zak Brown has apologised to Sauber and Nico Hulkenberg over his comments from the USGP Sprint. Image: XPB Images
Brown had initially lashed out moments after the Turn 1 incident at Austin, describing it as “amateur hour driving” and accusing Hulkenberg of hitting Oscar Piastri.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 during the race, Brown said: “I want to see the replay again, but clearly Nico drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was, went into his left rear tyre.”
However, after reviewing the footage, Brown conceded that his initial reaction was misplaced.
“I think I’ve changed my view,” he later told Sky. “I can’t really put that on Nico.”
Recognising the impact of his early comments, Brown reached out directly to both Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley and Hulkenberg to apologise.
Wheatley confirmed the apology, explaining that he understood how emotions had run high in the aftermath of seeing both McLarens taken out.
“Zak sent me an apology really quickly afterwards, and he apologised personally to Nico,” Wheatley said.
“Look, this is a passionate sport. I love the passion.
“You’ve got two cars, you’re fighting for a world championship, and your two cars get taken out of the first corner.
“It’s easy to think that it’s somebody else’s fault sometimes, and you react with passion.
“I think he probably did that on the Sky TV or something – in the heat of the moment and the emotion.
“But I’ve known Zak a really long time. He’s a racer. We’re all racers, and we sorted it out afterwards.”
Replays and post-race analysis indicated that the Turn 1 pile-up was more a racing incident than a single-driver error, with even Piastri acknowledging the fine margins at play.
“I was a long way away from the apex and I think the cars behind were going in pretty deep to the corner, so could I have done something a bit different? Maybe yes,” Piastri said.
“But that different thing would have been to potentially let two or three cars go by. I think a racing incident is fair.”
Stewards agreed with that view, opting not to launch a formal investigation into the crash.
However, McLaren will still review the intra-team contact between Piastri and Lando Norris, which occurred as a result of the initial collision.
Team principal Andrea Stella said at the time there was no rush to handle the matter during the Austin weekend.
“We will review at the right time the incident,” he said.
“We will do that collaboratively, the team, the drivers, and we will make the right assessment.”