McLaren chief Zak Brown slams Australian politician over suggestions team has favoured Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri
McLaren have faced accusations of bias over their management of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's title hopes; watch the title-deciding Abu Dhabi GP live on Sky Sports F1, with Qualifying at 2pm on Saturday and the race at 1pm on Sunday (build-up from 11am)
Friday 5 December 2025 15:38, UK
McLaren chief Zak Brown says an Australian politician who suggested the team has favoured Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri this season is "uninformed and uneducated."
Norris is going into this weekend's title decider in Abu Dhabi with a 12-point lead over Red Bull's Max Verstappen and a 16-point gap to his McLaren team-mate Piastri.
A McLaren strategy blunder at last weekend's Qatar Grand Prix cost Piastri a likely victory and left him with only an outside chance of securing a maiden title, with the incident emboldening supporters of the Australian who believe the team have favoured Norris on various occasions this year.
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The highest profile allegation of bias against McLaren came on Monday when senator Matt Canavan raised the issue during a session of Australia's Senate Rural, Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, asking where "McLaren is biased against Oscar Piastri and costing him the world championship?"
Asked about those comments on Friday in Abu Dhabi, Brown told Sky Sports F1: "We have done the best we can. Oscar himself has talked about how fair and equitable [we have been].
"We make mistakes but Oscar has been our number one spokesperson. He's never said a single word that anything has ever not felt right.
"I saw what the senator said. Clearly he's very uninformed and uneducated about our sport."
Having taken pole, Piastri was leading in Qatar when a Safety Car in the early stages triggered almost the entire field to stop. McLaren kept both Piastri and Norris, who was running third, out on track in a decision that would cost them both.
McLaren said the decision was mainly based around concern that if some cars behind hadn't have pitted, their drivers could have lost out in traffic.
Team principal Andrea Stella also admitted that another factor in the decision was concern over how much time Norris would lose if he had needed to wait behind Piastri in a double stack pit stop.
Some Piastri supporters appear to believe that avoiding a major delay for Norris was the primary reason McLaren did not stop either car.
Brown continued: "That's the cool thing about sport. People get very supportive of their heroes of their countries, so I'm not surprised to see people waving the flag for their drivers.
"It's most important to us that our team knows.
"And there are a lot of uneducated people out there and their views, and I'd spend all day trying to correct them, so it is what it is."
'We won't change the way we go racing'
McLaren's approach to racing has been closely scrutinised throughout the season, particularly given their drivers appeared to be in a two-horse title race for most of it before Verstappen stormed back into contention.
While he accepts there is always room for evolution, Brown insists there are no plans for McLaren to change their fundamental approach.
He said: "Even when you win, on Monday, you talk about what you could have done differently or better.
"So we're constantly evolving as a racing team. But the fundamentals of having two drivers that would give equal opportunity to win, that won't change.
"Do we look back and have lots of learnings? I remember when we finished first and second in Spain, our debrief on Monday was about eight things that were close calls that we could have done better. I think that's the nature of a Formula 1 team - to always evaluate and go, 'what could we have done differently, what could we have done better?'
"I think in sport you're going to win some, you're going to lose some. Of course, when you've made mistakes, you wish you hadn't, but that's just not realistic. I've yet to see any person or team in any sport have the perfect season.
"So, we're no different than that. But fundamentally, the way we go racing - that won't change."
Sky Sports F1's Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Saturday December 6
10.15am: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Practice Three (session starts at 10.30am)*
12.10pm: F2 Sprint Race*
1.15pm: Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying build-up*
2pm: ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
4pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday December 7
9.10am: F2 Feature Race
11am: Grand Prix Sunday: Abu Dhabi GP build-up*
1pm: THE ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX*
3pm: Chequered Flag: Abu Dhabi GP reaction*
4pm: Ted's Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
The 2025 Formula 1 season concludes with the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend with Sunday's race at 1pm (build-up from 11am). Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
