McLaren Formula 1 CEO Zak Brown has revealed that the team already has plans in place to avoid tensions escalating between its drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
After comprehensively outperforming Daniel Ricciardo across the previous two years, Norris was paired with highly-rated rookie talent Piastri from the beginning of 2023.
The pair capitalised on McLaren’s mid-season turnaround from backmarker to regular front-runner to notch a combined nine podiums as the side finished in fourth.
While the Briton outscored the newcomer by 205 points to 97, Piastri increasingly provided a match for his experienced team-mate in raw speed during the latter stages.
Piastri was also responsible for landing a breakthrough win for the Woking squad in the Qatar Sprint race, with Brown having labelled the Australian a “future champion”.
Amid McLaren’s rise and Piastri’s impressive start, Brown notes that he and McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella can formulate ways to “get ahead” of any growing rivalry.
“Not a concern, there’s an awareness that anytime you have two drivers that one is going to have to beat the other at some weekends,” Brown said on the dynamic.
“They’re super competitive right now, you feel a real energy around them driving for the team. We know there will be a day, probably sooner rather than later, when they’re looking after their own interests.
“I feel Andrea’s and my strengths are around driver management, so I think we can get ahead of that and manage it to make sure it stays a healthy competitiveness.”
Although Norris and Piastri share a harmonious relationship, the pair did make minor contact while contesting position at the first chicane during the Italian Grand Prix.
Reflecting on that incident, Brown addressed that McLaren’s attitude was to instantly hold a “healthy conversation” with both drivers to best prevent a repeat from materialising.
“We’ve all seen from our experience in Formula 1, you can see train crashes coming,” Brown reviewed.
“You don’t know exactly what the team bosses do, but you kind of sit there and go: ‘I’d be kind of getting on that now’ and it strikes me from the outside looking in sometimes you’ve seen things escalate and it doesn’t appear the team’s jumped in soon enough.
“So after Monza, which is the first and only time they touched, we had a very healthy – there was no sweat – conversation, and don’t wait till it happens a second time or third time.
“I think having once driven, not as fast as either of these two guys, I think helps understand the psychology of the driver and when and where and how to approach because I have seen you can approach drivers at the wrong time and you actually make it worse.”
