Zak Brown says Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ‘both’ gave the perfect answer on McLaren ‘bad blood’

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Oscar Piastri now leads his McLaren teammate Lando Norris by only nine points atop the 2025 drivers’ standings after the latter won the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Norris maximised a one-stop strategy to emerge victorious at the Hungaroring, to also claim his fifth win of the 2025 F1 season so far. Piastri has taken six wins this term, but he has only prevailed once in the last five rounds compared to the Briton’s three wins from the past four.

McLaren have seen Norris produce the best run of the 25-year-old’s career since he crashed into Piastri during the Canadian Grand Prix in June. Never before had the Bristol-born driver won back-to-back Grands Prix before he bounced right back with wins in Austria and Britain.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have ‘never’ annoyed the other amid their F1 title fight

Norris clumsily crashed into Piastri in the Canadian GP and failed to take a point for the only time this season after misjudging the space the Australian had left on the pit straight during their fight for P4 in Montreal. Piastri has secured points in all 14 Grands Prix so far this term.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

But McLaren CEO Zak Brown is ‘glad’ the Woking natives got an incident like Norris crashing into Piastri in Montreal ‘out of the way’ early in their F1 drivers’ championship fight as both learnt from it. He is even convinced that McLaren can avoid the pair developing ‘bad blood’.

Brown has sought to manage the tension bubbling at McLaren, with Norris and Piastri both fighting to win their first Formula 1 title knowing that F1’s 2026 regulations may make 2025 their only chance. And Brown is thrilled that Norris nor Piastri have annoyed the other… yet.

Brown told BBC Sport: “I’ve said to both of them individually at windows of opportunity, has your teammate ever done anything to annoy you? ‘Never’. And that’s what they both said.

“So, there’s competitiveness brewing. We’re not feeling any tension. As the championship builds, I’m sure that tension will grow. But like Montreal, I’m glad we got it out of the way because it was a non-event. Lando owned it [and] Oscar understood, it was a mistake.”

Brown added: “I’m positive they’re never going to run each other off the track, and that’s where you get into bad blood.”

Zak Brown’s ‘bad blood’ fears may have materialised if Oscar Piastri hit Lando Norris in Austria and Hungary

Team principal Andrea Stella is a key reason why Brown and McLaren have thus far managed to prevent bad blood from developing between their drivers. Stella has constantly reminded Norris and Piastri about McLaren’s papaya rules to try to avoid all serious on-track incidents.

Yet the lack of tension in Woking would be put to the test if or when Norris and Piastri come together in a more controversial incident than what happened in Montreal. Only Norris lost out in Canada after the crash he caused by being classified in P18, while Piastri still came P4.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

McLaren did not have the pace for the podium in Canada, where Piastri finished outside the top three for the first and only time since the opening round in Australia when he recovered to P9 after spinning out from P2. Norris also finished off the podium with P4 in Saudi Arabia.

Norris instantly responded to crashing in Canada by dominating in Austria, having won from pole position ahead of Piastri. But McLaren’s lack of tension might not be the case as Piastri nearly crashed into Norris in Austria, and he also almost rear-ended the Briton in Hungary.

Piastri narrowly avoided crashing into Norris in the Hungarian GP last Sunday after he locked up under braking into Turn 1 on the penultimate lap. It marked the Melbourne native’s only chance to pass the Briton for the lead after losing out through strategy with a two-stop race.