McLaren CEO Zak Brown has said the team would rather lose the drivers’ championship to Max Verstappen than back Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri in the title fight.
McLaren have made it clear all year that their drivers are free to race, but the closeness of Norris and Piastri means they have taken points off each other, with Verstappen closing a 104-point deficit to 36 points with four rounds remaining.
Norris is one point ahead of Piastri ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with both drivers heading for their first world championships.
But Brown referenced the 2007 F1 season, in which McLaren pair Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso narrowly lost the Drivers’ Championship to Kimi Raikkonen, with the team failing to back a single driver.
he said on beyond the grid Podcast: “We know 2007, two drivers sharing the points and one in the lead. But we have two drivers who want to win the World Championship. We’re on offense, we’re not on defense.
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Lando Norris talks about winning the Mexico City GP as he takes the F1 title lead over McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri. He also discusses Red Bull’s chances of winning the World Championship.
“I’d rather go with, ‘Our driver did his best to tie and the other driver beat us by one point’ than to say, ‘I know you have a dream of winning the world championship, but we flipped a coin and you can’t do it this year’ when you’re one point behind one of our drivers right now.’ Forget it!
“That’s not the way we race. If 2007 happened again, I’d rather have a result like that than any other result involving playing the favorite. We’re not going to do that.”
What happened in 2007?
The 2007 season was one of the most dramatic in F1 history. Hamilton’s rookie season surprisingly matched that of two-time world champion and McLaren team-mate Alonso.
Although the two drivers did not clash, the team was divided, Alonso had a falling out with team boss Ron Dennis, and off-track issues such as Spygate, in which McLaren employees obtained information about Ferrari cars, increased tensions.
Alonso was expected to achieve a better result than Hamilton, but the British driver took the lead in the championship after notching a ninth successive podium finish to start the season.
In the last two rounds, Hamilton was 12 points ahead of Alonso and 17 points ahead of Räikkonen. The points system was different back then as there were only 10 points for a win.
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Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz joins Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for a hot ride around Monza.
But Hamilton retired from the second race in China after crashing his car into the pit entry gravel trap as Raikkonen took victory.
Nonetheless, Hamilton only needs to finish in the top five if Raikkonen wins the race. Hamilton’s poor start left him vulnerable to team-mate Alonso and the pair raced hard on the opening laps, with Hamilton dropping to eighth.
He was working his way back through the field until a gearbox issue cost him more than 30 minutes and allowed him to recover only to 7th place.
Räikkonen finished third with Alonso, the Finn became world champion and both McLaren failed to win the title.
Formula 1’s thrilling title race continues in Brazil with the São Paulo Grand Prix Sprint Weekend, broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports NOW – No Commitment, Cancel Anytime
