More pressure for Norris? Brown senses Piastri has a title chance in 2024
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
Zak Brown is not ruling out a World Championship challenge from Oscar Piastri in the 2024 Formula 1 season. Much of the attention has been put on Lando Norris' attempt to close the gap on Max Verstappen, but McLaren CEO believes Piastri's late-season surge also has the potential to beat the Dutchman.
In recent weeks, McLaren has been asked about the 'papaya rules' and team orders to help Norris in his pursuit of Verstappen. There was some suggestion that McLaren would start helping the British driver, but it has yet to be translated on track. In fact, Piastri got the better of his teammate in Monza and Baku. Brown isn't ruling out his Australian driver.
"Definitely [has a title chance]. I think he's 30 or so points [32 points] behind Lando," Brown explained to Sky Sports. "The gap between Lando and Max is going to require some pretty awesome weekends, and maybe a little bit of bad luck here and there. That's one of the challenges. You're not looking at a driver that's too far back from Lando [in the standings]. He's kind of one weekend away from being on Lando's points," he added.
Difficult situation for McLaren
The McLaren CEO also touched on different scenarios in the races that McLaren have to think about for the Drivers' World Championship. "That's why we take it one race at a time. If it's running at the front and Max has had a DNF, so it's a big point haul, that's maybe one scenario. If we're first and second, Max is running third, so time starts ticking, then that's another scenario, so that's why I think we'll make the call live."
McLaren took the lead in the Constructors' Championship in Baku. It was looking likely they would only take one or two points lead, but Red Bull lost a lot of points with Sergio Perez's crash with Carlos Sainz in the closing stages of the race.
This article has been created in collaboration with Estéban den Toom