Zak Brown outlines stance on McLaren rules as F1 title battle hots up

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown insists the team will not change their approach in the drivers’ championship now that the constructors’ title has been sewn up. 

Lando Norris’s third-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix was enough for McLaren to wrap up the constructors’ championship at joint-record pace with six races still remaining in the 2025 season.

McLaren were crowned constructors’ world champions for the 10th time in their history as they successfully bagged the teams’ trophy for the second year running, having ended a 26-year-old wait for the title in 2024.

Attention now turns to the battle in the drivers’ championship, with Oscar Piastri leading Norris by 22 points. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen sits third, 41 points behind Norris and 63 adrift of Piastri.

McLaren have been determined to limit their involvement in the drivers’ title battle and have so far avoided favouring one driver over the other, though their management style has faced recent criticism.

Although Brown admitted Verstappen is “still very much in the game”, he stressed McLaren will not alter their ‘papaya rules’ for the remaining races.

“While we’d like it to solely come down to our two guys, Max is still very much in the game. I think what has been key is that the team have remained so focused but also very humble,” Brown told McLaren’s official website.

"So, we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing. Our strategy isn’t going to change because we’ve won the constructors’, we’re going to approach the remaining race weekends in the same way we’ve approached every one before it.

“That's what we're here to do: win races and win Championships. And we couldn't be hungrier.”

Can McLaren build an F1 'dynasty'?

Despite McLaren’s success in 2025, Brown stressed the focus remains on a race-by-race basis.

“Do we want to create a McLaren dynasty and leave a legacy? Of course we do," Brown said. 

"But it’s like Andrea [Stella, team principal] says: ‘You don’t race trying to create a legacy, you show up every weekend, focused on what you need to do that weekend, and then, the results and the history books take care of themselves.’”

Brown acknowledged that the 2026 regulation shake-up will make a sustained period of success even harder to achieve.

“Next year, with the new regulations, is going to be even tougher,” he added.

“This year, we had the benefit of working within regulations that we knew. But we’re now entering a new era, with one of the biggest regulation changes in the history of F1 – that comes with a lot of risk and a lot of opportunity."