Brown details why Montreal raised confidence at McLaren despite Norris/Piastri collision

Zak Brown has explained how the Canadian Grand Prix was a turning point in raising the confidence of the whole McLaren team, despite it being the scene of a collision between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

With the papaya squad enjoying a strong run across the nine races prior to Montreal – in which Piastri took five victories while Norris claimed two – the team were open about the increasing possibility of the two drivers potentially clashing on track at some stage.

This went on to occur at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, with a late-race crash between Norris and Piastri putting Norris out of the running while Piastri continued to cross the line in fourth place. Norris subsequently took responsibility for the incident.

While this may have initially appeared to be a challenging moment for the team, Brown – speaking to Sky Sports F1 following Norris’ triumph at the British Grand Prix – suggested that getting the collision out of the way actually helped the whole squad.

“I think Montreal was actually a nice moment for all of us, in hindsight, that it just kind of took the air out of the balloon and we just kind of got it over with and everyone was talking about it,” Brown explained.

“I kind of feel like it’s raised everyone’s confidence and comfort of, ‘It’s happened, it was a mistake’, so I think we’ll see other incidents in the near future, but there will be racing mistakes and racing mistakes are going to happen.”

Piastri and Norris are currently separated by just eight points at the head of the Drivers’ Championship, with Max Verstappen more than 60 points adrift in third place, and Brown has been open about wanting the battle between his drivers to go down to the wire.

When asked how the team will ensure that Norris and Piastri keep on racing each other, the CEO responded: “I think just keep doing what we’re doing – treat them equally, fairly, transparently, [have] good communication, and if we can continue to build the gap then we want it to be up to them to decide who wins the championship, if it comes down to being the two of them.

“We’ll treat them equally and fairly, and may the best man win. They’re both very clean drivers so that’s what’s cool, you don’t feel like one’s going to run one off the track.

“They’re going to fight hard – mistakes will happen along the way, but I think it’s going to be an epic battle down to the final race.”