Zak Brown shows class with Nico Hulkenberg apology after stinging criticism
McLaren boss Zak Brown apologised to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg after heavily criticising him.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown personally apologised to Nico Hulkenberg for comments he made about the Sauber driver.
Brown initially pinned the blame on Hulkenberg for causing the opening-corner clash at the start of the United States Grand Prix sprint race that wiped out both McLarens.
Having been tagged by Hulkenberg, championship leader Oscar Piastri was pitched into teammate and title rival Lando Norris, forcing both drivers to retire on the spot.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 from the McLaren pitwall just after the incident, Brown slammed it as “amateur-hour driving” and claimed Hulkenberg had “no business being where he was”.
Brown retracted his criticism after viewing another replay of the drama. Speaking again to Sky, he said: “I think I’ve changed my view. I can’t really put that on Nico.”
Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley has revealed Brown sent an apology text to Sauber, and said sorry to Hulkenberg in person.
“Zak sent me an apology really quickly afterwards. He apologised personally to Nico,” Wheatley said.
“Look, this is a passionate sport, I love the passion. You've got two cars, you're fighting for a world championship, and two cars get taken out in the first corner.
“It's easy to think that it's somebody else's fault sometimes and you react with passion. I think he probably did that to Sky TV - the heat of the moment and the emotion.
“But I've known Zak a really long time. He's a racer. We're all racers and we sorted it out afterwards.”
McLaren to review clash
McLaren have confirmed they will review the incident internally.
“We have had a couple of conversations with Lando and Oscar, but the conversations were fundamentally about resetting,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained.
“In racing, you can't look backwards too much, especially when you have a qualifying session ahead. So it was a conversation about resetting as usual.
“We will review at the right time the incident. We will do that collaboratively, the team, the drivers, and we will make the right assessment.
“This follows the way we approach this situation based on our racing framework. And both Lando and Oscar were happy with this kind of approach.”
McLaren’s review of an opening lap collision between Norris and Piastri in Singapore resulted in repercussions that Norris will face for the remainder of the 2025 season.
In this article
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
