Zak Brown promises McLaren team orders as Lando Norris’ plan could be overruled | F1 | Sport
Zak Brown has confirmed that McLaren will use team orders at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to confirm the Drivers’ Championship title, provided that there is a natural situation to do so. The American CEO declared that his team “would be crazy not to” use all of the tools in their toolbox to bring home the crown.
Lando Norris holds a 12-point buffer over Max Verstappen heading into the season finale, while Oscar Piastri is still in contention, but trails his team-mate by 16 points. This means that McLaren’s British star will clinch his maiden World Championship no matter what with a podium finish on Sunday.
This means that there could be a situation where Norris is running fourth behind Piastri with Verstappen in the lead. In this scenario, the Australian ceding position would hand his team-mate the crown.
Norris was asked about this situation in the Thursday press conference, but the Bristol-born racer insisted that he would not ask his team to deploy team orders to move Piastri out of the way and help him win the title.
“No, not been discussed,” he stated. “I mean, I would love it, but I don’t think I would ask it because I don’t know. It’s up to Oscar if he would allow it. I don’t think it’s necessarily down to me. It’s the same if it’s all the way around. Would I be willing to or not? Personally, I think I would just because I feel like I’m always like that, and that’s just how I am.
“I don’t want to ask it because I don’t think it’s necessarily a fair question. At the same time, if that’s how it ends and Max wins, then, well, that’s it – congrats to him and I look forward to next year. It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change my life. So he will deserve it over us.”
However, Norris’ stance is not matched by his boss at McLaren. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 at the Yas Marina Circuit, Brown made it clear that he wouldn’t hesitate to impose team orders if they could help one of his drivers beat Verstappen.
“Yes, of course,” he stated. “We’re realistic. We want to win this Drivers’ Championship. We’re coming into the weekend knowing that they both have equal opportunity, even though there’s obviously a point spread.
“You don’t know how qualifying is going to go, reliability, but if we get into the race and it’s becoming pretty clear that one has a chance and the other doesn’t, we’re going to do what we can to win the Drivers’ Championship. It would be crazy not to.”
