{"id":35967,"date":"2025-07-14T04:12:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T08:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=35967"},"modified":"2025-07-14T04:12:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T08:12:33","slug":"zak-brown-clean-norris-and-piastri-can-handle-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/07\/14\/zak-brown-clean-norris-and-piastri-can-handle-title-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Brown: “Clean” Norris and Piastri can Handle Title Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

An eventful British GP ended in an increasingly familiar result, a McLaren 1-2, as the chequered flag came out. Norris<\/a> reduced Piastri’s Championship advantage to just eight points, putting him ever closer to the Australian.<\/p>\n

Typically, managing two drivers battling for the Championship is a tricky scenario for teams. With that said, McLaren CEO Zak Brown is not especially concerned.<\/p>\n

McLaren relaxed about season-long title fight between Piastri and Norris<\/h2>\n

There is no question the MCL39 has been the fastest car in 2025, from the first race in Albert Park to the most recent in Silverstone.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Brown, Chief Executive Officer of McLaren looks on from the pit wall during practice at Silverstone. (Photo by Steven Tee\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite this, there was some optimism that Max Verstappen<\/a> could mount a title charge in the RB21.<\/p>\n

A series of impressive victories in Japan and Imola kept the 4-time Champion in contention for the first few months of the season.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Red Bull, a failure to improve the RB21’s razor-thin operating window<\/a> has proven costly.<\/p>\n

McLaren are now in Pole Position to claim both world titles.<\/p>\n

Even if Ferrari or Mercedes surprise the field with their next upgrades, the Woking team’s advantage in the standings will be almost impossible to overcome.<\/p>\n

This means Norris and Piastri will go head-to-head in search of their first world titles.<\/p>\n

The Canadian GP, where Norris ran into the back of his teammate, was a reminder of the high stakes when a world title is on the line.<\/p>\n

However, Zak Brown argues the team is unphased by the prospect of more wheel-to-wheel confrontations.<\/p>\n

“If we can continue to build a gap, we want it to be up to them to decide who wins the Championship.<\/em><\/p>\n

“If it comes down to the two of them, may the best man win.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And they are both very clean drivers, so that is what is cool, you don\u2019t feel like one is going to run one off the track.<\/em><\/p>\n

“They\u2019ll fight hard, mistakes will happen along the way, but I think it\u2019s going to be an epic battle down to the final race.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lando Norris and Peter Prodromou, Technical Director (Aerodynamics) and Zak Brown, Chief Executive Officer. (Photo by Zak Mauger\/LAT Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An intense second half of the season awaits<\/h4>\n

There are still a few updates that will be brought to the track before the summer break.<\/p>\n

In general, though, the pecking order should remain relatively similar until the final race in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

For McLaren, there is always the possibility that Red Bull<\/a>, Ferrari<\/a> and Mercedes<\/a> can become fast enough to fight for regular victories.<\/p>\n

However, even if this transpires, it does not necessarily change the dynamics for the reigning constructors Champions.<\/p>\n

Much like in 2024, McLaren are the fastest team – but certain circuit layouts and track conditions could give rivals a better chance of taking wins.<\/p>\n

With such a massive buffer in the standings, Norris and Piastri won’t be concerned about anyone else entering the title race.<\/p>\n

McLaren can also rest assured that their 238 point Championship lead is essentially unassailable.<\/p>\n

This means that whilst the team wants to limit incidents between the two title protagonists, collisions between Piastri and Norris are more tolerable than they would be otherwise.<\/p>\n

In this sense, even in a worst-case scenario, McLaren has no real incentive to intervene.<\/p>\n

As the year progresses and tensions rise, it will be essential for Andrea Stella’s team to be as neutral as possible.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Clive Rose\/Getty Images (McLaren media gallery)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An eventful British GP ended in an increasingly familiar result, a McLaren 1-2, as the chequered flag came out. Norris reduced Piastri’s Championship advantage to just eight points, putting him ever closer to the Australian. Typically, managing two drivers battling for the Championship is a tricky scenario for teams. With that said, McLaren CEO Zak […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":35970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1959,2452,444,66,2560],"class_list":["post-35967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-andrea-stella","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastril"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35971,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35967\/revisions\/35971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}