McLaren CEO Zak Brown says the team will implement team orders if required in order to stop Max Verstappen winning the F1 world championship on Sunday.
McLaren’s Lando Norris leads the standings by 12 points heading into this weekend’s season-finale, with Verstappen in second and Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri 16 points off the pace.
The papaya-clad team, who wrapped up the constructors’ title in October, have opted against prioritising either Norris or Piastri throughout the season. However, in a change of approach, Brown has now acknowledged that McLaren will intervene in Sunday’s race in order to seal the drivers’ title.
The commonly used scenario has been whether Piastri would cede a top-three place for Norris – who only needs a podium to wrap up his maiden title – if required.
Asked about whether he’d intervene in such a situation, Brown told Sky Sports: "Yes, of course. We're realistic. We want to win this drivers' championship. We're coming into the weekend knowing that they both have equal opportunity, even though there's obviously a point spread.
"You don't know how qualifying is going to go, reliability, but if we get into the race and it's becoming pretty clear that one has a chance and the other doesn't, we're going to do what we can to win the drivers' championship. It would be crazy not to.
"We want to win the drivers' championship. So, we'll kind of see how the race plays out, but we're not going to not win the championship because we're trying to protect a third and a fourth or a sixth and a seventh, or however the situation may play out."
Asked further about the topic in Friday’s press conference, sitting alongside Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, American executive Brown reiterated his stance.
“We’ll be practical and realistic if the race develops,” he added. “We’ll race accordingly to do whatever we can to get that driver in front.
“We’re not going to throw away a drivers’ championship.”
Piastri, smiling as the question was asked in Thursday’s press conference, said: “It’s not something we’ve discussed. I don’t have an answer until I know what’s expected of me.”
Norris added: “It’s up to Oscar if he’d allow it, it’s not down to me.”
“Would I be willing to [cede position for a title] or not? Personally, I would – that’s how I am. I’m not going to ask for it as I don’t think it’s a fair question.
“But if that’s how it ends and Max wins, well done to him, we go to next year. It won’t change my life.”
Verstappen trailed by 104 points back in August but five victories in the last eight races, alongside two weekends to forget for McLaren, means the Dutchman is on the cusp of a fifth consecutive championship.
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