Zak Brown is happy for McLaren to have two F1 drivers – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – who are pushing each other.
Having had a difficult last couple of years with Norris and Daniel Ricciardo pairing where the Australian struggled to sync with McLaren, the team eventually moved to a new one by poaching Piastri from Alpine to have a rather young line-up for F1 2023.
Even though they don’t have the car behind them, Brown still feels that they have seen enough to know that Norris and Piastri will push each other which is what McLaren needs after two years of far apart and when the car is not fully well.
“What we want to have is two drivers that are pushing each other,” said Brown. “And I think early indications are that Oscar will be on the same pace as Lando and the two of them will push each other hard. And that’s what you want out of your two drivers, to know that it’s kind of down to you, as a team, to provide them with a car to get to the front.
“So I’m confident when you look down the list of things you need to have a winning team, having two Grand Prix drivers is critically important and I think we’ve got that,” summed up Brown, who had high praise for Piastri coming in and performing straight up. The Australian already has points to show up for his efforts.
“He’s doing very well,” continued Brown. “He’s a very mature 21-year-old, very focused. He’s very focused, head down. You can’t really tell the difference between him at his home race in Australia or Saudi or Bahrain and I think that’s what’s going to make him a really good Grand Prix driver, his focus and his calmness.”
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