McLaren says it would rather take a 2007-style title loss to Max Verstappen than secure the Formula 1 championship by “playing favourites” with one of its drivers.
The Woking-based team is heading into the final four races of the season facing a renewed threat from Red Bull’s Verstappen, who has closed in dramatically over recent races.
With just one point separating Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Verstappen is now just 36 points off the lead – having been 104 points adrift just after the summer break.
The presence of Verstappen makes things more complicated for McLaren, both in terms of continuing to ensure fairness between its two drivers, but also being aware that there is a risk Norris and Piastri could take points off each other.
But the team has ruled out throwing its full support behind one driver to guarantee the crown.
As McLaren admitted to before the summer break, it is a stance that opens the risk for a title defeat like McLaren suffered in 2007, when Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen came through the middle to triumph against Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
However, abandoning the route it has chosen to take this year in letting its drivers fight it out is not something it is tempted by, even with the increased threat from Verstappen.
Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, McLaren CEO Zak Brown believed that sticking to the team’s principles of fairness between its drivers mattered much more than the final result in the championship.
Asked what the response would be if Verstappen came through and won, Brown said: “I shake his hand and say, job well done. I want to make sure if we don’t win, he beats us. We don’t beat ourselves. That’s important.
“We’re well aware of 2007. Two drivers tie on points, one gets in the front. But you know, we’ve got two drivers who want to win the world championship. We’re playing offence. We’re not playing defence.
“And I’d rather go, we did the best we can on our drivers tied in points and the other beat us by one, than the alternative which is telling one of our drivers right now, when they’re one point away from each other, I know you have a dream to win the world championship but we flipped the coin and you don’t get to do it this year. Forget it.
“That’s not how we go racing. In the event that 2007 happens again, I’d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. We won’t do it.”
McLaren has gone to great lengths this year to try to keep things as fair as possible between its drivers, even though at times some of its decisions – like the Monza position swap – have triggered controversy.
But while the championship situation is getting increasingly tense, it thinks there would be more to lose by throwing its support behind one driver.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella added: “If Max is the champion at the end of the year, for us, the important thing is that we can say we have done our best and we have done our best according to the way we go racing.
“And if Max wins this year, we say we’re going to win next year, we’re going to be there and we are going to be united as we are.”
He also refuted any suggestion that there would be any bias within the team.
"So when you are in my role, it’s like when you have two sons and somebody says, 'Which one is your preferred son?' Yeah, but they are my two sons, how can you say which one is the preferred one?" Stella said.
"Sometimes when I hear or read some comments of this kind, I find them really very superficial and just like, I think sometimes people don’t really understand what it means to have two drivers that are with you together in this journey in Formula 1.
"I just feel very grateful to both, in fairness."
