Zak Brown is getting tired of ‘uninformed’ critics saying that McLaren prefer Lando Norris

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McLaren have repeatedly been accused by outsiders of favouring Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri in the F1 title fight. Zak Brown finds it ‘frustrating’ to deal with that vocal minority.

Piastri has never given any indication that he thinks the team aren’t supporting him. Brown says outsiders are trying to disrupt McLaren, who have won back-to-back constructors’ titles and remain favourites for the drivers’ title with Norris.

The accusations largely stem from the Italy and Singapore weekends. Piastri was told to return second place to Norris at Monza, having pitted first and benefited from his teammate’s slow stop.

Then, at Marina Bay, Norris was allowed to retain P2 despite making contact with his teammate at the start. McLaren later punished the Briton by giving Piastri priority in qualifying, but this arrangement only lasted for one race.

Piastri and Norris were involved in a race-ending incident at the start of the Austin Sprint, and the former was deemed predominantly at fault.

Zak Brown says Oscar Piastri ‘knows’ he has McLaren’s full support

The view that Norris is receiving preferential treatment isn’t confined to the online world. There are some within the paddock who have made that point off the record, though they acknowledge it may not be deliberate.

Still, Brown thinks a lot of the noise is coming from ‘the social media world’. It’s difficult to disprove the ‘uninformed’ theories, but the most important thing is that Piastri knows they aren’t true.

“That’s total nonsense,” said Brown on The Sports Agents podcast. “We hear the nonsense out there. There’s a lot of it. On one end, it’s frustrating because people are so uninformed.

“It’s hard to prove [that there’s no favouritism], but we know it, Oscar knows it, Lando knows it, the team knows it. Unfortunately, in today’s social media world and clickbait headlines, the facts are just so wide of the mark sometimes.”

Turning to the relationship between his two drivers, Brown said they had always been ‘respectful’ with one another. When they have a grievance, they take it to senior management.

“They’re very friendly,” he said. “I wouldn’t say they socialise or hang out. They’re very respectful. I’ve never felt once any tension in the room. They’re totally relaxed. Any time they get grumpy, they get grumpy at Andrea or I. They never get grumpy at each other – never, not once.”

Zak Brown ‘100%’ believes Oscar Piastri is as good as Lando Norris

There’s a school of thought within McLaren that Norris was underperforming earlier in the season, which explains why Piastri was able to build up a healthy championship lead.

Through that lens, it looks as if the natural order has reasserted itself in recent races. But Brown says there’s nothing to separate the two.

Asked if he honestly believes Norris and Piastri were as good as one another, he replied: “100%. If we had two drivers and it was clear one was the number two, that has to develop on its own.

“We hired two drivers deliberately, equal opportunity. McLaren’s always done it that way. That’s always been our DNA.”

The McLaren duo are the first teammates to compete for the title since Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2016.