McLaren must be careful not to lose their positive image very quickly

"I definitely think I probably overreacted in some way," Lando Norris revealed at the press conference on Thursday. In doing so, the Briton showed particular maturity. Norris and Verstappen had sat down together twice and said everything they needed to say.

Besides the two protagonists, the entire F1 paddock also sounded united. Whereas Verstappen received criticism from several analysts, especially from British media, the drivers appeared to think completely differently. Almost every driver was asked about the duel between Norris and Verstappen and all were of the same opinion: the incident wasn't that bad and even the penalty for Verstappen was questioned by many.

All's well that ends well you would think, but that was beyond Zak Brown. The McLaren CEO has been attacking Red Bull Racing before in 2024. For example, Brown openly expressed his dissatisfaction with Christian Horner's tenure after he was investigated. During FP1, Brown took a jab at Red Bull again.

Brown attacks Red Bull Racing

Brown could be heard during the Sky Sports broadcast, where he announced: "We have some concerns over what happened last weekend. Andrea [Stella] and I will address those to make sure the rules are consistently enforced. I think more of the responsibility is on the stewards to be more consistent in their policing of the regulations. It's also a little unfortunate that all of us teams are privy to what we see on the data and maybe don't encourage our drivers. Until someone tells Max what he's doing is outside the regulations. I don't blame Max, he's driving at the limit, he's a world champion. So until someone tells him what he's doing isn't correct, I wouldn't expect him to drive any differently. So I think the issue is really on pit wall and getting some more consistency around our stewarding."

After the first free practice session, Brown also chimed in for the team bosses' press conference. "I think what they gave, you're supposed to give a driver a car's width and he didn't and it's unfortunate. It could have just been a small rub and they both carried on but I thought that was the right penalty because that's what the rule book says but again I think Max is an awesome racing driver fighting for the lead and it's our responsibility as teams to let the drivers know what the limits are and if and if you don't I wouldn't expect max to do anything differently."

Zak Brown thus fully supports Andrea Stella. According to McLaren's leading duo, the stewards have too often failed to penalise Max Verstappen in recent years. Indeed, according to them, Verstappen has crossed the line many times, Stella cited 2021, without being penalised for it. The duo therefore does not (solely) blame Max, but puts the responsibility on the FIA.

Still, the noises from the McLaren camp are remarkable and completely at odds with the opinion of the rest of the paddock. The team may find an audience with the British media, and especially Sky Sports, because of their already published analysis by Anthony Davidson. After all, according to Brown and Stella, the latter had seen it right: Max had been guilty.

McLaren's good image

Brown's comments did not go unnoticed. Even Toto Wolff, a friend of Zak Brown, stated: "It's always amusing to see the just one-dimensional comments of team principals where you think let's be a little bit objective at least."

That Toto Wolff of all people lectured Zak Brown on that was of course ironic. The last major battle in F1 was fought between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes in 2021. That duel, too, was fought more often in the media than on the track. Like Brown now, Wolff was not always as objective back then and was certainly not as complimentary about Max Verstappen as he is now. But maybe that has something to do with Wolff's wish to sign Max.

The political game is the bread and butter of Formula 1 and it makes sense for Stella and Brown to champion McLaren's interests. Yet the game that has been played since the Austrian Grand Prix is childish. If everyone in Formula 1, including the protagonists, says it wasn't too bad, why are you going to make such a big deal out of this? Hanging the story on an analysis by a former F1 driver is also remarkable in itself, just as the earlier retweeting of the X-post with that analysis was. McLaren had a very good image, were loved throughout the paddock, but it has to be careful with statements like this that they don't lose the good image very quickly.