Brown’s bold stand: Better to lose to Verstappen than divide McLaren

McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown has drawn a bold line in the sand – and it’s painted in the team’s signature papaya orange.

With just a single point separating Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in F1’s Drivers’ standings and Max Verstappen closing fast in the title fight, Brown insists that McLaren will not compromise its integrity by favouring one driver over the other.

Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Brown made clear that the pursuit of victory will never come at the expense of fairness. The stance isn’t just a feel-good platitude – it’s a bold rejection of the easy path.

“I’d shake his hand and say, job well done,” he said when asked what his reaction would be if Verstappen ultimately beat McLaren to the championship.

“I want to make sure if we don’t win, he beats us. We don’t beat ourselves. That’s important. We’re well aware of 2007. Two drivers tie on points, one gets in the front.

“But you know, we’ve got two drivers who want to win the world championship. We’re playing offence. We’re not playing defence.

“And I’d rather go, we did the best we can on our drivers tied in points and the other beat us by one, than the alternative which is telling one of our drivers right now, when they’re one point away from each other, ‘I know you have a dream to win the world championship but we flipped the coin and you don’t get to do it this year’.

“Forget it. That’s not how we go racing. In the event that 2007 happens again, I’d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. We won’t do it.”

It’s a remarkable declaration in an era where most teams, when faced with two evenly matched drivers, reach for the instruction sheet marked team orders. Not Brown. He’s determined to see McLaren rise – or fall – as one.

A Lesson from History

Brown has been upfront all season about the perils of parity. Earlier this year, he acknowledged that McLaren’s commitment to letting both drivers race freely could backfire, evoking memories of the team’s bitter 2007 campaign with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

“We recognise the consequences of that could be 2007,” he admitted. “You’ve got two drivers that tie and lose to Kimi by a point.

“We could have won that drivers’ championship, but who do you pick? And then you run the risk of the guy you don’t pick, he’s out of here.”

That experience – and the fractures it caused – has shaped the McLaren boss’s philosophy today.

“There is nothing in their contract that gives one priority over the other,” Brown said. “The downside of favouring one would likely be one then wants to leave, which is exactly what happened at the end of ’07 [anyway].”

In short, McLaren’s revival is built not just on pace and precision, but on principle.

Stella: ‘They are my two sons’

Team principal Andrea Stella, the quiet architect of McLaren’s resurgence, echoed Brown’s sentiments with heartfelt conviction. For Stella, equality is more than a management choice – it’s a moral one.

“If Max is the champion at the end of the year, for us, the important thing is that we can say we have done our best and we have done our best according to the way we go racing,” he said on the podcast.

“And if Max wins this year, we say we’re going to win next year, we’re going to be there and we are going to be united as we are.”

Asked if McLaren might still secretly favour one driver, Stella’s response was strikingly personal.

“So when you are in my role, it’s like when you have two sons and somebody says, ‘Which one is your preferred son?’ Yeah, but they are my two sons, how can you say which one is the preferred one?”

“Sometimes when I hear or read some comments of this kind, I find them really very superficial and just like, I think sometimes people don’t really understand what it means to have two drivers that are with you together in this journey in Formula 1.

“I just feel very grateful to both, in fairness.”

As the championship enters its decisive final stretch, McLaren stands at a crossroads – but its leaders have chosen the high road. In a sport often consumed by calculation and cutthroat tactics, Zak Brown and Andrea Stella are choosing conviction.

McLaren might yet lose the title. But if it does, it will do so with its dignity intact – and a promise that, win or lose, it will never betray the very spirit of racing.

Read also: Ecclestone stirs the pot again – McLaren may be holding back Piastri!

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