Zak Brown confirms McLaren Abu Dhabi GP team orders stance: 'Crazy not to do what we can to win'

Zak Brown says McLaren will impose team orders in the Abu Dhabi finale if only one of Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri remains in realistic contention to secure the drivers' championship

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has confirmed that the team will now consider enforcing team orders during the season finale in Abu Dhabi if it becomes clear that only one of its drivers is able to win the championship.

Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen are all still in the running for the drivers' title. Norris leads the championship standings with a 12-point lead over Red Bull's Verstappen and Piastri follows four points behind the Dutchman.

McLaren has maintained its 'papaya rules' throughout the season, whereby it allows both drivers to race freely with the one proviso that they keep it clean on track. While this was met with praise from fans earlier in the season as it resulted in some exciting on-track battles, as the championship progressed, the approach has come under a large amount of scrutiny.

While speaking about the team orders situation during the drivers' press conference in Abu Dhabi, Norris and Piastri explained that the possibility of asking one another to move over had not been discussed within the team. But Brown has now told Sky Sports F1 that it would be silly not to enforce team orders if only one of the drivers is in the running during the race.

"Yes, of course. We're realistic. We want to win this drivers' championship," he said when asked if the team would ask Piastri to move over for Norris if he was no longer in the running.

"We're coming into the weekend knowing that they both have equal opportunity, even though there's obviously a point spread.

"You don't know how qualifying is going to go, reliability, but if we get into the race and it's becoming pretty clear that one has a chance and the other doesn't, we're going to do what we can to win the drivers' championship. It would be crazy not to.

Zak Brown, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

"We want to win the drivers' championship. So, we'll kind of see how the race plays out, but we're not going to not win the championship because we're trying to protect a third and a fourth or a sixth and a seventh, or however the situation may play out."

He added, "It's a team sport, right? So, we're trying to win the constructors' [championship] as a team, and we're trying to win the drivers' [championship] as a team.

"I know that kind of sounds a bit strange, but if one of them can't win, they want the other to win. And that's what the team wants. And they are team players and we've already seen that last year, right?

"You saw that in the sprint in Brazil and I think it was Qatar. So, I don't think it's unusual in any sport for team-mates to make sacrifices for each other to give the team what they want."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella also discussed the team's approach following the Qatar Grand Prix.

"I think whatever call we make in terms of using the collaboration of our drivers, we will have to follow some of our fundamental principles, which are foundational to our approach," he said.

"We want to be fair to our drivers, we want to race with integrity, and we want to race in a way that doesn't surprise our drivers. So between now and Abu Dhabi, there will be further conversation with Lando and Oscar.

"We will confirm our racing approach, but certainly what I can say is that if any of the drivers is in condition to pursue the quest to win the title, then we will respect this, and there will be no call which excludes the other driver when the other driver is in condition to win.

"So we will see what scenario will unfold, but definitely what I can say is that there will be conversations and there will be a way of going racing which is united between the team and the drivers, like we have always done."