Zak Brown fires back at Australian politician’s bias claim

McLaren boss Zak Brown has brushed off a claim from Australian senator Matt Canavan that the team is favouring Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri in their 2025 title fight – and he’s done so with the kind of withering dismissal that leaves little room for debate.

Canavan, speaking during a parliamentary committee session earlier this week, floated the idea that McLaren might be “biased” against Piastri and “costing him the world championship.”

Brown’s reaction? Pure disbelief. Asked about the remarks ahead of the Abu Dhabi season finale, Brown made it abundantly clear where he stands.

“I think we’ve done the best we can and I think Oscar himself has talked about fair and equitable, we make mistakes, but I think Oscar has been our number one spokesperson,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“He’s never said a single word that anything’s ever not felt right. I saw what the Australian senator said and clearly he’s very uninformed and uneducated about our sport.

“But that’s the cool thing about our sport. People get very supportive of their heroes of their countries. I’m not surprised to see people waving the flag for their drivers.

“What’s most important to us is that our team knows and there’s a lot of uneducated people out there with their views. I’d spend all day trying to correct them. So it is what it is.”

The subtext was unmistakable: McLaren’s internal reality and the public noise are two very different worlds.

No U-Turn On Papaya Rules

With Norris leading Verstappen by 12 points and Piastri 16 further back, McLaren has confirmed it could use team orders on Sunday to ensure it secures the drivers’ title. But Brown insisted that doesn’t mean the team has changed its philosophy.

“I don’t think it’s a U-turn,” he said. “We’re going to start the weekend like we have the other 23, which is going in, giving both drivers equal opportunity.

“Last year, once it became clear that Lando had the best chance to catch Max, and Oscar was almost statistically out of it in Baku, we then asked Oscar to support Lando. It ended up being Lando supported Oscar in that particular race and Oscar won the race.”

Brown stressed pragmatism over politics as the team prepares for a three-way title showdown.

“We’re going to use common sense. We’re not going to throw away a drivers’ championship over a sixth and seventh place, a third and a fourth place, a fifth and a sixth place, if one of our drivers doesn’t have the opportunity.

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“I think everything we do, we do with the drivers, so they know what the game plan is for this weekend. Outside of our racing team, you’re a bit ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’.

“We’re going to just stay true to our racing principles: we want to win the constructors’ [championship], which we’ve done, we want to win the drivers’ [championship], and so we’ll see how the race plays out.”

Intrigue, accusations and political theatre aside, Brown’s message was clear: McLaren will do what it takes to win – and it won’t apologise for that.

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