Zak Brown reviewed the journey which led championship winner Lando Norris to McLaren F1 and to his title campaign.
The CEO of the Woking-based team, in fact, has been working with the young British talent ever before the beginning of his F1 career.
Brown recalles the importance of Norris’s McLaren F1 path
Norris, in fact, began his experience as McLaren driver during his Formula 2 career back in 2018, and went on to drive full-time for the team with which he has done so for seven seasons now, and more to come.
Asked on how important he believes this title and entire year is to Norris, Brown explained, highlighting also the significance of his bond with McLaren F1.
He began building on from his own experience as driver.
“I mean, it’s every driver’s dream to grow up to be a world champion. It was my dream, I just didn’t make it to Formula 1 and didn’t win any races, but otherwise I was really close.
“So it’s awesome to do it together.I remember when he was about that big, the management he has around him. Mark and Fraser and his whole family have done an awesome job bringing him up to be the mature world champion that he now is.”
Will Piastri be the next F1 Champion?
Brown admitted that he hopes his teammate Oscar Piastri will be able to achieve the same final result.
The young Australian also made his official debut with McLaren and led the championship a consistent part of the 2025. Ultimately, he finished the year in third place as Verstappen claimed P2.
“It’s a great accomplishment and it’s very rewarding. And also the same thing with Oscar, right? Oscar is going to be a world champion. I’m convinced he’s going to be a world champion in a McLaren.
“While we got him a little bit later in his career, we still took a risk on both our drivers, right? Both times they drove a Formula 1 car, it was a McLaren. And for a big team to take a risk, if you’d like, on young drivers feels very rewarding.”
Brown highlighted the courage of his team in opting to employ such two equally young and equally talented drivers, with plenty of potential risks arising.
“To be able to have two number one drivers against all odds, all the noise that we’ve had for so long that it’s impossible to do what we did, which is have two awesome racing drivers that win seven races each, that genuinely enjoy racing each other and are a treat to work with.”
He concluded remarking the kind relationship between the driver duo, which was never marred, not even by the championship fight.
“They’ve never had an odd exchange between them. They’ve both been a little grumpy with Andrea [Stella] and I from time to time. But I think that’s good. We’re pushing each other hard and it’s just such an accomplishment. I’m very proud and looking forward to doing it again.”
