McLaren F1 chief Zak Brown jokes about ‘sabotaging’ Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

McLaren

Zak Brown jokes about ‘sabotaging’ Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri

Zak Brown's two drivers were involved in a championship battle last year

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 2 March 2026 10:54

McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown joked about 'sabotaging' his two drivers equally following the double disqualification at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as shown on Drive to Survive.

McLaren came in for a lot of criticism throughout the 2025 season for their 'papaya rules' tactics, not wanting to back one of their drivers and instead giving them both an equal opportunity to fight for the title.

These tactics are what arguably allowed four-time champion Max Verstappen to get back into the title fight, with Lando Norris eventually winning the championship by just two points over Verstappen.

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Verstappen managed to close the gap significantly at the end of the season by winning the final three grands prix of the year, but his most significant gain on the two McLaren drivers came at the Las Vegas GP.

Both Norris and Piastri were disqualified from the race for excessive wear on their skid blocks, while Verstappen won the race, allowing for a 25-point swing between the Dutchman and the two McLaren drivers.

In the final episode of the new series of Drive to Survive, the Netflix cameras followed McLaren Racing CEO Brown as he attended his Seven Tenths of a Second book launch show at the London Eventim Apollo last November.

Off the back of the double disqualification, Brown addressed the crowd, saying: "We’ve never claimed we’re perfect. We try and be perfect."

The McLaren boss then joked: "But we’re fair, we rotate whose car we sabotage weekend to weekend so we do everything totally fair," prompting laughs from the crowd and event host Rick Edwards.

In a piece to the Netflix cameras reflecting on the Vegas GP outcome however, Brown took a more serious approach, saying: "We’ve made a mistake and to do anything to hurt our drivers getting the chance to win the drivers' championship, we felt pretty bad."

Can Norris and McLaren repeat 2025 success?

Whether or not Norris will be having another victory parade at the end of this year will likely depend on how well McLaren deal with the new regulation changes, and whether or not their nearest rivals can usurp them with the rules overhaul.

Mercedes are understood to be the favourites heading into the season, but McLaren have a Mercedes power unit in their MCL40, and this could certainly help them to maintain competitiveness should Mercedes be the team to beat.

Ferrari, however, are also looking strong (if testing is to be believed), with the Maranello-based outfit trying out a number of innovative design quirks.

Their driver Charles Leclerc put in the fastest time of Bahrain pre-season testing on the final day of running at the Bahrain International Circuit, while Lewis Hamilton's lightning fast start turned heads in the paddock.

Then there's Red Bull, who also appear to be shaping up well and know that their star driver Verstappen will likely give them a chance of regular race victories even if they have built an inconsistent car.

McLaren will likely find it tougher going than they did in 2025, where they won 14 of the 24 grands prix.

McLaren Lando Norris Oscar Piastri 2026 regulations Zak Brown