McLaren would rather lose the drivers championship to Max Verstappen than enact team orders too early, according to team CEO Zak Brown.
Oscar Piastri leads McLaren teammate Lando Norris by 13 points at the top of the drivers title table, but victory for Max Verstappen at the weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix has seen the Red Bull Racing star close to within just 22 points of top spot.
The Dutchman has been able to keep in touch with the lead despite McLaren’s car advantage in part thanks to Piastri and Norris taking points away from each other through the opening races.
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Norris beat Piastri to victory in Melbourne and finished ahead of him in Japan and again in Imola, preventing the Australian from maximising his points lead despite his season-high four wins.
Now Red Bull Racing is hopeful that Verstappen is back in the fight, with his victory in Imola the first in which the RB21 has demonstrated McLaren-beating pace.
It’s turned the spotlight back on how McLaren plans to manage its drivers through the title campaign, with there now a real risk that Piastri and Norris could cost each other a shot at the championship by pinching points from one another while Red Bull Racing explicitly backs Verstappen as its leader.
But Brown, who has overseen McLaren’s recovery from backmarker to championship leader, is unperturbed by the risk posed to his team’s first drivers title since 2008.
“I’m comfortable with that,” he told Planet F1.
“I’m comfortable with that because the other scenario is: how do you take a driver out of the championship that’s competing for the championship? That’s not right at all.
“If you had a second driver that wasn’t competing for the championship, then I get it — sacrifice [Yuki] Tsunoda’s qualifying because he’s giving Max a tow or whatever.
“I get compromising the second car at Red Bull because it’s not competing for the drivers championship, so it’s an easy decision to make.
“But when you’ve got two drivers first and second in the championship and are separated by less than one second-place finish, how do you possibly even consider standing one down into a supporting role?
“There’s just no way we will.”
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Brown said the team could influence the drivers title by delivering performant equipment and fostering a neutral competitive culture that allows both drivers to maximise their respective scores.
But he also admitted the outcome isn’t totally within his control. In doing so he invoked invoking the 2007 season, when McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso ended the year tied in the standings and one point behind championship winner Kimi Räikkönen.
“Obviously from a drivers [title position], you could say Max has 110 per cent support, so he probably gets a few extra points because his teammate is there to support him, where our guys can take points off each other — which is exactly what happened in 2007 when we didn’t win the championship,” he said.
“Hopefully we give them a car in an environment where you’re going into the last race and it’s the two of them competing and they didn’t take points off each other to the point where it lets Max or someone else get in there.
“But if so, then whoever wins the drivers championship has done a better job.”
Aside from a philosophical disposition to even-handedness, Brown said the team’s position not to prioritise either driver was made straightforward by Norris and Piastri themselves.
“For us it’s quite an easy thing to work through,” he said.
“Our drivers aren’t asking for favouritism, they’re asking for fairness, and that’s what they get.
“I think they’re very comfortable; may the best man win.”
He added that neither driver would be comfortable winning the title knowing their teammate had been hobbled by a decision from management.
“Our drivers want to win it by beating their 19 competitors,” he said.
“So there’s also an aspect of until you get to a point where it’s clear — and I’m optimistic and hopeful this doesn’t happen — I would prefer having two drivers fighting for one championship than having one play a supporting rule.
“But our drivers have both said they want to win the championship by beating everyone, including their teammate.
“I think they’re less interested in winning it because we’ve stood a teammate down.”
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While Brown affirmed McLaren’s right to use team orders if one driver fell out of realistic title contention, he emphasised that supporting both to be competitive was the aim, with defence of the constructors title the team’s first priority.
“Our view is until it becomes clear that one driver has a significantly better chance than another, which we made that call last year, we’re never going to favour one driver when both are fighting for the championship,” he said.
“From a constructors [championship position], that only benefits us.
“The best way to win the constructors is to finish first and second in the drivers, and that’s what we’re trying to do.
“And then the way to let the drivers decide who’s first and second is by treating them fully, fairly, transparently.”
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner contended in Imola that McLaren’s two-driver approach was bound to become a vulnerability, pointing to Piastri and Norris’s late battle for second place.
That battle came about after McLaren refused to order Piastri, on older tyres, aside after the safety car restart to aid Norris’s fresh-rubber pursuit of Verstappen in the lead.
“At some point self-interest will always outweigh team interest. That’s the conflict,” he said, per Autosport. “It was commendable that they were allowed to race, but you could see it got pretty close.”
He added to Sky Sports: “Our full focus is on the drivers championship. We’ve got a very clear number one in our team, and that’s where the main focus is.”