Zak Brown and Oscar Piastri at COTA. Photo: RacePictures

Zak Brown fires back at Australian GP backlash as McLaren favouritism claims resurface

21:49, 09 Feb

byBen Hunt

Zak Brown has responded to claims that his McLaren team could face a backlash in the Australian Grand Prix for their treatment of Oscar Piastri.

Some fans feel that the Woking-based team compromised the Australian’s performances last season to boost Lando Norris’s successful championship bid.

The matter was even mentioned in Federal Parliament, where Brown barked back at the “uninformed” and “ridiculous” statements.

He told media, including GPblog: “I think fans, put aside countries, all have various opinions in sport. It can be frustrating when some people, and again, this isn't country-specific, are very uninformed, and the statements you see are just ridiculous, but I don't think that's territory-specific.

“I think, as Oscar has communicated many times, he knows he's getting a fair shake at it. You know, you win some, you lose some, things fall your way, things don't fall your way. You know, we lost Oscar some points. We lost Lando a lot of points in [the Dutch Grand Prix]. So I think we just need to keep our head down, stay focused, and the people that matter most to us, that know that we bring total sporting fairness to our racing team is our racing team, our papaya fans, and our sponsors, family, and friends.

“So, it's a shame that people in, you know, Parliament, who I would say are pretty far removed from understanding Formula One, vocalise things like that when I wouldn't dare because I'm not knowledgeable, comment on the job they're doing, but I bet I could make some comments."

A repeat of the 2025 Australian GP team orders?

Brown was asked if the team would repeat their team orders from last year’s Australian Grand Prix where in tricky conditions, Piastri was told not to attempt to overtake his teammate. And the McLaren boss says they would make the same decision before explaining why.

He added: “I think if it was the identical situation. The identical thing would happen. And let me explain, and maybe you can help convey to those people. They were free to race. If you look at what was happening in the race, we didn't know if it was going to be wet or if it was going to be dry.

"You’ve got Oscar coming up on Lando. We've got a good lead. We don't know if we need to finish on these tyres. The track's half wet. The track's half dry. They're coming up on traffic.

“It was hit the pause button. It was not stop. It was hit the pause button. You saw what happened not long after both of our guys went off. So it was very tricky conditions.

“So being free to race doesn't mean that there's not going to be points in a race where you have to assess what's going on. So that was less about the competition. It had nothing to do with the competition about Lando and Oscar.

“We didn't want to put both our cars at risk, not yet knowing how the weather and the track conditions were going to play out. We've said that a hundred times. To me, it makes perfect sense. I don't understand why people, once we've explained it, I guess, I get in the heat of the moment when you're watching the broadcast, but we've explained it, and I think what's just come out of my mouth makes perfect sense.

“It was hit the pause button, so we can see how this race plays out, and then you can go back to racing, which is exactly what we did.

“So I think that's a good example of some people needing to be more informed about how our race plays out.”