15/10/2025
NEWS STORY
Though admitting that Max Verstappen is a threat, Zak Brown insists that Papaya Rules remain.
Other than the Dutchman's improved form following recent updates, the fact is that the biggest threat to Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris claiming the 2025 is the pair themselves.
While the Woking team has left them free to race courtesy of its so-called Papaya Rules - which Norris has claimed don't actually exist - as the title fight reaches its climax it is clear that the tension is getting to both drivers.
Be it strategy, team orders, botched pit-stops or incidents such as Singapore where Norris almost put his teammate into the wall on the first lap, there is a feeling that things could eventually get out of hand.
Verstappen has claimed 86 points from the last four races, compared to Piastri's 52 and Norris' 39, understandably Brown is concerned, however the American insists that in terms of Papatya Rules it is business as usual.
"While we'd like it to solely come down to our two guys, Max is still very much in the game," he tells his team's website. "I think what has been key is that the team have remained so focused but also very humble. So, we're just going to keep doing what we're doing.
"Our strategy isn't going to change because we've won the constructors'," he insists, "we're going to approach the remaining race weekends in the same way we've approached every one before it.
"That's what we're here to do, win races and win championships. And we couldn't be hungrier."
Hard to believe, but prior to Lewis Hamilton in 2008, McLaren's last back-to-back titles came courtesy of Mika Hakkinen who won in 1998 and 1999. With an eye on those back-to-back titles, not to mention successive titles between 1988 and 1991, Brown is hoping that next year's rules overhaul might lead to another golden era for the Woking team.
"Do we want to create a McLaren dynasty and leave a legacy? Of course we do," says the American. "But it's like Andrea says: 'You don't race trying to create a legacy, you show up every weekend, focused on what you need to do that weekend, and then, the results and the history books take care of themselves.
"Next year, with the new regulations, is going to be even tougher," he admits. "This year, we had the benefit of working within regulations that we knew. But we're now entering a new era, with one of the biggest regulation changes in the history of F1, that comes with a lot of risk and a lot of opportunity."