Zak Brown confirms McLaren’s F1 title approach amid Max Verstappen threat

Zak Brown has confirmed McLaren will not change their approach to managing Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris despite a renewed threat from Max Verstappen.

Piastri and Norris appear to be in a two-horse race for this year’s world title, but consecutive victories for Verstappen at the Italian and Azerbaijan grands prix have seen the four-time world champion close up to the McLaren pair.

Championship leader Piastri crashed out on an uncharacteristically sloppy weekend in Azerbaijan but Norris could only finish a disappointing seventh as he failed to fully capitalise on his teammate’s rare errors.

Verstappen’s second win in a row has seen him move to within 44 points of Norris, while he is now 69 points behind Piastri with seven races to go.

Despite McLaren acknowledging that they very much consider Verstappen to be a threat, the team are set to keep giving Piastri and Norris equal status.

"I think you've got to pay attention to Max," McLaren Racing CEO Brown told Bloomberg.

"We've got to keep doing what we're doing. The constructors' is looking very good; we had a chance to wrap it up in Baku, but let's not talk about Baku. Hopefully, we can get the job done in Singapore.

"And what we want to do is we want our two drivers, and Max, but we'd like to kind of get him out of there, to fight for the championship and just give them equal opportunity, equal equipment, which is what we're doing and may the best man win. That's what we want to do.

"We'd like to not play a role if at all possible, but you get into, you know, Lando had a mechanical issue and things can happen in safety cars and things of that nature.

“But I think our goal is to just set Lando and Oscar up to be competing for the championship down to Abu Dhabi and may the best driver win."

McLaren told to take action now

Based on Brown’s comments, it appears McLaren will be ignoring the advice of former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, who has urged the team to immediately back Piastri.

“I think they will take the decision, because otherwise, if they lose it because of that decision, how dumb do they look?” Steiner told The Red Flags podcast.

“I want to say, I think McLaren should have learned something out of last year, how they did it. It didn’t work. And if they do the same this year… Up to now, it was like, okay, Max is not a threat anyway.

"It looks good if you let them race. And it’s good, actually. It not only looks good, it’s good for the people which watch it.

“But now, it’s getting to a point where there could be some damage to the team in losing the drivers’ championship. So if you run the team, you have to prevent this by putting a rule down to make somebody unhappy. And so it should be.”

Asked when he would make the call, Steiner replied: “I would make it now.

“I would do, because I just want to make sure I win the championship. I said I think Max cannot get near, but if I already get the feeling there is a risk, why would I take it?

“And you also send a message to Max. He will do everything to win it.”