Zak Brown is “convinced” Oscar Piastri will become Formula 1 world champion with McLaren despite losing the 2025 title to team-mate Lando Norris at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
McLaren’s drivers fought for a maiden championship all year and third place at the finale sealed the job for Norris, who finished 13 points ahead of Piastri and two points in front of runner-up Max Verstappen.
The battle also represented contrasting approaches from two teams: Verstappen is Red Bull’s clear number one driver, while McLaren kept it equal between its pairing.
So when Brown was asked about the growth from Norris since he joined the McLaren academy aged 17 in 2017, he made sure to reference the 24-year-old who joined from Alpine for 2023.
“Oscar is going to be a world champion,” said the McLaren CEO. “I’m convinced he’s going to be a world champion in a McLaren. While we got him a little bit later in his career, we still took a risk on both our drivers. Both times they drove a Formula 1 car, it was a McLaren.
“For a big team to take a risk on young drivers feels very rewarding. To be able to have two number one drivers against all odds, all the noise that we’ve had for so long that it’s impossible to do what we did, which is have two awesome racing drivers that won seven races each, that genuinely enjoy racing each other and are a treat to work with. They’ve never had an odd exchange between them.
“They’ve both been a little grumpy with Andrea [Stella, team principal] and I from time to time, but I think that’s good. We’re pushing each other hard and it’s just such an accomplishment. I’m very proud and looking forward to doing it again.”
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Andrea Stella, McLaren, Zak Brown, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Piastri was even in control for much of the year, leading the standings from round five to 19, holding as much as a 34-point advantage over Norris after the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
But a late-season collapse, which saw Piastri fail to win any of the final nine races having crashed in Baku and been off the pace in places like Singapore and Mexico, gave the prerogative to Norris.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella still saw enough from Piastri to echo Brown’s thoughts on him becoming world champion, but even went one better in the process.
“Effectively, we could have had two champions this year,” Stella told Sky Sports. “The gap between the two was so small and I said after [Abu Dhabi] qualifying that the, I think [the gap] was 30 milliseconds, that was the whole story of a season.
“30 milliseconds in qualifying, always so close on track, very close on lap one. As you said, some tense situations from that point of view, but always resolved for the best.
“Oscar was a worthwhile champion and he was worthwhile champion [in his] third season in Formula 1. He learned so rapidly, he had a couple of races where he struggled a bit in the famous low grip tracks.
“He learned very rapidly what to do. He became immediately competitive again. His trajectory is phenomenal and definitely, we have a future multiple world champion in Oscar.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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