Why McLaren boss Zak Brown expects a collision between his Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, but isn’t afraid of it
When two Formula 1 teammates are battling for the world championship title, tensions within the team are bound to rise – at the very least. McLaren boss Zak Brown even expects Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to collide with each other during the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Speaking to Sky, Brown said: “I think it’s more a question of when it happens, not if. Because we have two drivers who are competing in 24 Grands Prix side by side, and at some point one of them is going to lock up…”
That sounds like Brown is implying that one of his drivers will deliberately maneuver to cause an accident. But that’s not how Brown wants to be understood: “I guess it’ll just be a racing accident. It won’t be as exciting as everyone thinks.”
However, he considers such a scenario between his McLaren drivers to be “inevitable” given the sporting situation and is therefore looking forward to “it finally being over. Then we can close this chapter,” said Brown.
Although he is not ‘worried’ because he does not consider Norris or Piastri to be ‘hotheads,’ Brown has taken precautions together with McLaren team boss Andrea Stella: The traditional English team has already held a meeting with the drivers to discuss this very issue, as Brown explained in The Race podcast.
Why Brown doesn’t expect a second Prost/Senna
“I think we have a relationship with our drivers – and the drivers with each other – that allows them to have an epic battle on the track and still shake hands afterwards, even if there’s a little collision in between,” says Brown. Norris and Piastri are “real team players” in this regard.
“But everyone understands that this is racing, and it will happen,” says Brown. “However, I am very confident that they will not push each other off the track. I don’t see anything like what happened in Suzuka in 1989 or 1990 happening with our two drivers.”
Back then, the two McLaren teammates Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna collided with each other in a heated World Championship battle – with Prost coming out on top in 1989 and subsequently moving to Ferrari. The two collided again in 1990 at the same place, with Senna once again winning the World Championship.
And if there is indeed a crash between Norris and Piastri in 2025? Brown is relaxed: “Then we’ll talk about it, analyze it, and learn from it.”
