McLaren heads Andrea Stella and Zak Brown have spoken up about their plans if Max Verstappen snatches the title from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Acknowledging that the Dutch driver has come quite close to the win this season, with a 36-point difference between Verstappen and Norris, Stella and Brown addressed his potential victory at the Beyond the Grid podcast with his Tom Clarkson.
Stella said, "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."
For Brown, more than the result, it matters more how the team achieved it, as he noted, "I want to make sure if we don't win, he beats us, we don't beat ourselves. That's important."
Acknowledging that a potential 2007 scenario could play out in the McLaren garage, where then McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso lost the championship to Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen by one point due to an internal rivalry, Brown argued that they would not change their philosophy out of respect for Norris' and Piastri's title dream.
McLaren Racing CEO noted, "And we’re well aware of 2007, two drivers tie on points, one [Raikkonen] gets in the front. But, we've got two drivers who want to win the world championship. We're playing offence, we're not playing defence."
Turning down any speculation of favouritism in the McLaren squad, Brown concluded that he would rather have another driver beat the team than tell Norris and Piastri that "I know you have a dream to win the world championship, but we flipped a coin, and you don't get to do it this year."
Besides that, all the drivers have been gearing up for a key race at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, November 9, at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.
