Zak Brown shares how he deals with ‘upset’ Oscar Piastri behind the scenes in McLaren F1 title battle

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Oscar Piastri is having an excellent third year in Formula 1, leading the drivers’ championship at the summer break. But the Aussie is beginning to feel pressure from his teammate.

He recovered from an unfortunate spin at the season opener in Melbourne to win in Shanghai, before claiming three consecutive victories in Bahrain. Jeddah and Miami. Piastri established himself as the lead McLaren driver as mistakes in qualifying cost Lando Norris.

But recent races saw the Brit swing the momentum back in his favour, with three wins in the last four races. Two of those wins caused frustration for Piastri.

The Aussie looked on course to win at Silverstone when he braked quickly under the safety car, causing Max Verstappen to overtake him briefly. Piastri was hit with a 10-second time penalty, thus ruining his chances of winning as he settled for second.

In Budapest, he was looking strong on fresh tyres on a two-stop strategy, but Norris executed a one-stop after a poor start to the race. Piastri aggressively lunged at his teammate on the penultimate lap, almost crashing into him, but again, he had to settle for runner-up.

Zak Brown likes to ‘break the ice’ with Oscar Piastri behind the scenes during the 2025 title fight

Juan Pablo Montoya has noticed Piastri is more ‘heated’ at McLaren as he is solely focused on beating Norris. Recent races have brought frustration for the 24-year-old, notably in Silverstone, where Piastri tried to get his penalty appealed and asked to swap positions, but was unsuccessful.

The gap between the McLaren drivers is now down to nine points with 10 races remaining. Piastri will be determined to keep Norris behind him, giving CEO Zak Brown a potential headache when it comes to dealing with his drivers.

Speaking to The Race, he shared how he deals with Piastri in uncomfortable situations, using Silverstone as an example, where he and his fans on social media were noticeably disappointed.

“Clearly, he was upset. Understandable,” he said. “And I tend to get – which is going to surprise all of you! – some stuff from social media, from fans.

“I got one note in particular, which was pretty off the charts. And so I’m walking with Oscar to the fanzone, and I was like, ‘Dude, you didn’t have to send me this note’! Because it was a pretty aggressive note from an Oscar fan. And I got a giggle out of him.

“And I was like, ‘All right, good. We’re just starting to kind of break the ice’.

“I’m a believer in dealing with stuff in the moment, if you can fix it in the moment – or if it’s something that you can’t fix in the moment, maybe you need to just let everyone cool down and deal with it on Monday. Maybe let’s just let everyone take the temperature down.

“I always try and break the ice. Kind of goof around a little bit with the drivers. So when I got the chuckle out of Oscar, it was like, ‘All right, good, we’re in the calming down phase’, right?”

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

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris’ title fight set to intensify after the summer break

McLaren engineers have noticed Norris and Piastri are more intense since they have been fighting for the title. The pair do not want to leave anything for one another as they push to win their first championship and McLaren’s first since 2008.

With Verstappen seemingly out of the title picture, sitting 97 points behind Piastri, it looks like a straight shootout between the McLarens.

Piastri fans will love Zak Brown’s declaration after the Hungarian GP, as he triumphantly said: ‘We let them race’. McLaren will continue to give their drivers freedom during race weekends, and some more.

McLaren will let Norris and Piastri ‘tear each other apart’ in the final 10 races. Of course, they will not tolerate another collision, so it will be interesting to see how the team cope with the dilemma of only one being the champion.