McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has highlighted his squad’s commitment to absolute fairness between its drivers in an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com.

With Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sitting first and second in the Championship after seven races, ahead of the relentless Max Verstappen in third, McLaren has a shot at claiming its first drivers’ crown since Lewis Hamilton’s maiden title in 2008.

Zak Brown insists equality must come before glory

The challenge Brown and team principal Andrea Stella face is how to manage the individual ambitions of their highly competitive drivers.

Formula 1 is a team sport, with the major squads employing over a thousand staff whose combined efforts are pooled in support of two individuals.

McLaren has consciously and deliberately hired two top-tier drivers in Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, both of whom have proved capable of delivering race wins and, potentially, world championships.

It’s a break from the norm in F1 where most leading outfits have tended to focus their efforts on one driver, with the second there to play a supporting role – history has shown fielding two top-tier drivers is troublesome, at best.

That’s not lost on Brown, though he holds a pragmatic view that places the emphasis on McLaren’s ambitions first and the drivers’ second.

“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,” Brown told PlanetF1.com.

“And then, the way to let the drivers decide who’s first and second is by treating them fully, fairly, transparently.

“So you’ll notice last race [Imola], Oscar went out first in Q3. The race before, Lando went out first in Q3.

“When upgrades come, if one gets it one weekend – because we can’t deliver both – then the other gets it the other weekend, and vice versa.”

When it’s not possible to offer like-for-like, efforts are made to ensure equality in the broader sense is achieved through other tangible means.

However, there’s a critical question that is raised by such an equalised approach; at what point does the team break away from that mantra and focus its efforts on one of its drivers?

In F1 2024, Piastri leant his support to Norris when necessary; moving aside in the Sao Paulo GP Sprint so the Briton could maximise his points haul over then-championship rival Verstappen.

Piastri was, by then, out of contention for the title and so having him work in support of his colleague made sense.

In Qatar, with the title fight over, Norris returned the favour in a move that underscored how deeply the notion of fairness has been engrained within the team.

It’s a noble quality, but one that could ultimately lead to an incredible outcome – one Brown is fully aware of.

“For us, it’s quite an easy thing to work through,” Brown explained.

“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.

“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 [Verstappen] or someone else get in there.

“But if so, then whoever wins the Drivers’ Championship has done a better job.”

In short, Brown values fairness and equality of opportunity for his drivers above individual success for either.

Put another way, he’s prepared to see neither of his drivers win the title rather than deny one the chance.

“I’m comfortable with that,” Brown insists.

“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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As the championship stands, Verstappen sits third, just nine points away from Norris, who is 13 down in Piastri.

Victory in Imola last weekend saw the four-time world champion inch his way closer to the Aussie at the top of the standings, while second and third for McLaren meant Brown’s team strode further clear in the Constructors’ Championship.

Success in that competition brings with it significant prize money benefits that can do wonders to a team’s balance sheet.

By winning last year’s Constructors’ Championship, McLaren is this year entitled to the largest slice of the prize money pie from Formula One Management.

That figure is tied to the annual revenue generated by the sport’s commercial rights holder, but last year Red Bull brought in more than $250 million courtesy of it winning the 2023 title.

With the sport’s commercial side expected to continue growing this year, McLaren is set to pocket somewhere north of that sum over the course of F1 2025.

Success again this year would maintain that earning power through F1 2026.

With such significant income linked directly to Constructors’ Championship success, it’s no wonder the emphasis is placed on the teams’ competition despite the drivers’ title carrying greater prestige.

That’s not to say Brown doesn’t value the Drivers’ Championship, quite the opposite, but delivering it in a manner in-keeping with values of the team overrides that ambition – a view he insists both Piastri and Norris share.

“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,” Brown insisted.

“Now, from a Constructors’ [Championship position], that only benefits us.

“Obviously from a Drivers’, you could say Max has 110 percent 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 ’07 when we didn’t win the championship.”

In 2007, Kimi Raikkonen swooped the title out from under Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton as the then-McLaren teammates finished tied on points, one shy of their championship-winning Ferrari rival.

It’s plausible that such a scenario could happen again, with Verstappen nipping and Norris’ heels and within striking distance of Piastri too.

But Brown is adamant that he doesn’t want success for one of his drivers to come at the team-imposed expense of another.

“Our drivers want to win it by beating their 19 competitors,” he asserted.

“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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