Zak Brown Claims He’d Pick Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri Vying for Win Over Red Bull’s Driver Crisis

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has recently shared his thoughts on managing two top-level drivers — Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri — in a team. He believes it is better to deal with the challenges of two competitive teammates than having one driver struggling to keep up with the other.

“I’d rather have the challenges of two drivers fighting for a win than the challenges of one driver fighting for the win and the other fighting to get into Q3,” Brown shared on the Business of Sports podcast.

“We’ve got two great drivers, we have great relationships, we’re transparent, we’re fair. I think we can manage through their desire to beat each other because they’re both team players,” he added.

Brown’s comments reflect a direct contrast to the situation at Red Bull Racing, where Sergio Perez has struggled to stay anywhere close to the level of recently crowned world champion Max Verstappen. Perez’s poor qualifying record is exactly the kind of thing Brown was hinting at.

After all, the Mexican has struggled to reach Q3 in most of the races recently, having had starting positions of P16, P13, P18, P10, and P13 respectively. This inconsistency has put Red Bull at a massive disadvantage as the team slipped to third in the constructors’ standings despite dominating it in the first half of the season thanks to Verstappen’s seven wins.

Has Red Bull run out of patience with Perez?

Red Bull seems to be inching closer and closer to replacing Perez at the end of the 2024 season. While his commercial success in the Latin American market has kept him in the seat longer than some expected, the team appears to be on the lookout for a replacement.

Red Bull’s decision to promote Liam Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo mid-season at the sister team RB, was seen as a move to audition the young New Zealander for the second seat on the main team in 2025. The Milton Keynes-based squad is reportedly also interested in Williams driver Franco Colapinto, who was recently praised by both team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko.

Rumors intensified when Horner was seen leaving the Williams motorhome during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix weekend, with reports suggesting discussions about Colapinto were on the agenda. Red Bull GmbH’s managing director Oliver Mintzlaff’s visit to Williams’ motorhome at the Las Vegas GP added further fuel to the speculation.