McLaren will let Piastri and Norris shape F1 title celebrations

In a season dominated by McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, the Woking-based team is preparing for a delicate balancing act as the Formula 1 drivers’ championship nears its climax.

With Piastri leading Norris by just nine points at the summer break, and the next closest contender, Max Verstappen, trailing by 97 points, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has revealed a thoughtful approach to celebrating the eventual champion while remaining sensitive to the runner-up.

The team plans to consult both drivers directly to ensure the celebrations reflect their preferences, acknowledging the emotional weight of the title fight.

McLaren’s dominance in 2025 has been undeniable, with Norris and Piastri combining for 11 victories in the first 14 grands prix.

The team’s four consecutive 1-2 finishes heading into the summer break also underscore the fierce competition between the two drivers, who are locked in a head-to-head battle for their first world championship.

“It’s going to come down to execution,” noted Brown in Hungary last time out, quoted by The Race.

“It’s clear, from a pace point of view, there’s nothing in it. So, it’s going to come down to consistency of execution – or it could come down to luck of the draw: weather, safety car, or one guy gets wiped out by someone else on the track.”

Despite the possibility of other drivers remaining in contention, Brown admitted, “We still think others are in the championship,” but added, “We are not naive.”

McLaren recognizes that the championship is increasingly a two-horse race between its drivers, creating a unique challenge for managing team dynamics.

Planning for Victory and Defeat

Brown emphasized that McLaren has not yet finalized how it will handle the emotional fallout of one driver winning the title while the other falls short. But he revealed the team’s intention to involve Norris and Piastri in shaping the post-championship celebrations.

“We’ll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go ‘Right, one of you is going to win, it’s going to be the best day of your life - one of you is going to lose, how do you want us to handle that? You want us to jump up and down and celebrate this guy [who] won?’” Brown said.

“We’re fully aware and sensitive to how you celebrate that situation. And I think we’ll just sit down with the drivers and come to an agreement: ‘One of you is not going to be the champion. How do you want us to act?’

“That’s the way we think. It comes back to thinking about our people.”

This approach reflects McLaren’s commitment to treating both drivers as equals, avoiding the traditional number one and number two hierarchy.

So far, the team has allowed Norris and Piastri to race wheel-to-wheel and pursue different strategies, even when it leads to complications, such as Norris’s one-stop strategy triumph in Hungary or Piastri’s frustration over a controversial penalty at Silverstone.

Navigating Emotional Highs and Lows

Brown singled out the British Grand Prix as a poignant example of the emotional tightrope McLaren must walk. Piastri’s disappointment was palpable after a penalty he and the team contested cost him a potential victory.

“Clearly, he was upset. Understandable,” said Brown, who recounted a lighthearted moment when he used humor to diffuse the tension, referencing an aggressive note from a Piastri fan.

“I got one note in particular, which was pretty off the charts. And so I’m walking with Oscar to the fanzone, and I was like, ‘Dude, you didn’t have to send me this note’!

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“Because it was a pretty aggressive note from an Oscar fan. And I got a giggle out of him. And I was like, ‘All right, good. We’re just starting to kind of break the ice.’”

Brown’s philosophy is to address issues promptly or allow time for tempers to cool.

“I’m a believer in dealing with stuff in the moment, if you can fix it in the moment - or if it’s something that you can’t fix in the moment, maybe you need to just let everyone cool down and deal with it on Monday,” he said.

“I always try and break the ice. Kind of goof around a little bit with the drivers. So when I got the chuckle out of Oscar, it was like, ‘All right, good, we’re in the calming down phase’, right?

“That’s understanding the people here. But we have thought about it, I’ve thought about how do you deal with the winner and the loser, if you’d like. And that’ll just be a conversation we have with the drivers and go, ‘How would you like us to conduct ourselves?’ Because we’ll be very considerate about that approach.”

As McLaren navigates this unprecedented intra-team battle, Brown’s commitment to open dialogue ensures that both Norris and Piastri’s voices will shape how the team celebrates its first drivers’ championship since 2008.

By prioritizing their drivers’ perspectives, McLaren aims to maintain harmony while celebrating a historic triumph.

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