Zak Brown has made it clear he does not agree with Alan Jones’ claim that Lando Norris is “weak”, saying athletes deal in “different ways”.

Norris has often spoke about his mental health struggles amidst the challenges that he has faced as a Formula 1 driver competing on the big stage while the world passes judgment.

Zak Brown on Lando Norris criticism: One person’s opinion

Although Norris started this year’s championship as the driver to beat, leading the standings for the first time in his F1 career with a victory at the Australian Grand Prix, he has fallen behind his team-mate Oscar Piastri in recent weeks.

Piastri has secured three of this season’s opening five Grand Prix wins to sit nine points ahead of Norris, earning him widespread praise as a driver who keeps his cool and gets the job done.

Even Max Verstappen, who is up against the McLaren team-mates for the World title, has noticed.

F1 2025 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“He’s very calm in his approach, and I like that,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com in Saudi Arabia. “It shows on track. He delivers when he has to, barely makes mistakes, and that’s what you need when you want to fight for a championship.”

But while Piastri has been praised, questions have been asked of Norris.

Ralf Schumacher warned that if he “doesn’t perform this year, it will be difficult for him [to work with] other teams at some point” as “you know how it is in the paddock; once they think that you’re a rubbish driver or not mentally strong enough to become World Champion, then of course, you no longer have access to the other top teams”.

It was, however, 1980 F1 World Champion Alan Jones that were the most cutting as he labelled Norris “weak”.

Speaking to Fox Sports Australia, the 78-year-old said: “He [Piastri] can do it [win the title] this year, no question. At the end of the day, his team-mate is weak.

“His team-mate is quite quick; there’s no doubt about that. But mentally, I think he’s quite a weak person.

“He’s coming out with all this nonsense that he’s got a bit of a mental thing, he’s dwelling on some of the problems he’s had rather than the positives. When they start talking all that nonsense, you know you’ve got them.”

Brown, though, has made it clear where he stands on that.

The McLaren CEO pointed out that people are different and have different ways of dealing with things with Norris the type of person who is open about his thoughts and feelings.

And that doesn’t make him weak, even if it is contrary to how a “tough guy” like Jones would cope.

“First of all, I’m a big Alan Jones fan,” Brown said as per Motorsport.com. “I think it’s easy and understandable for people to have a view on other people from the outside looking in.

“Lando’s always very open with his comments. I think you see different athletes talking about what they’ve done in different ways. Some don’t talk about it at all, some talk about it a lot. I think it’s all a way for them to get it out of their system and move on.

“I just spent some quality time with Novak Djokovic, which I thought was fascinating on how he uses his range of emotions to perform.

“So no, I didn’t agree with the comments, but I understand why he might have that view. And he was a tough guy, right? So that’s probably not how he would roll. So, yeah, one person’s opinion.”

Norris shrugged off Jones’ criticism to win the Sprint in Miami with the Briton set to line up P2 for the Grand Prix.

“I think he needs to stop striving for perfection,” was Brown’s advice to his driver. “If you talk to any driver, they’ll always say they’ve never done the perfect lap, so I think just focus on doing the best you can.

“He did a great job yesterday, leading the championship up until last race, he’s ten points behind. I think he’s got as good chance a at pole and winning this races, anyone.

“For me, perfection is do the best you can and if you miss that apex by three inches or a meter too late, that’s going to happen. So, I think striving for doing the best you can is the best approach.

“We do a 1.8 second pit stop. I bet we can do a 1.78, but don’t go into each pit stop going: ‘I’m going to do a 1.78;. Just go into each pit stop doing the best you can. So, I think that’s a better place to be.”

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