Brown put on the spot over McLaren’s Norris bias in live interview
McLaren CEO Zak Brown recently found himself in the crosshairs of a rather unexpected question about his team’s driver bias towards Lando Norris.
“Now you build the race car for both your drivers. It's all about incremental gain.”- Zak Brown
The 54-year-old, who made a recent appearance on talkSPORT, was asked about the in-season dip in form suffered by Oscar Piastri, which coincided with Norris’ performance surge during the 2025 campaign.
Brown, however, who appeared to be a little taken aback by the question, opted for a diplomatic response.
“Now you build the race car for both your drivers. It's all about incremental gain. We started off with a great car, so the developments are measured in milliseconds,” he said.
Throughout the 2025 season, in which McLaren won the Drivers’ Championship with Norris, the Woking-based outfit was constantly greeted with questions about its bias towards Norris as opposed to Piastri.
However, Brown and other team executives have consistently downplayed this narrative. The McLaren CEO has also expressed confidence that Piastri will eventually secure a Drivers’ Championship with the team.
Piastri to blame for failed title charge
Former Haas F1 team boss, Guenther Steiner, earlier stated that Piastri remains solely to blame for his failed Drivers’ Championship challenge.
The 60-year-old highlighted the need for the Australian to take an introspective look at himself, to analyse the reasons behind his in-season slump.
Piastri’s 2025 campaign can be summed up in two halves: a brilliant first 15 races, where he won seven Grands Prix, and an underwhelming final nine, where he could only muster three podium finishes.
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