Zak Brown addresses McLaren team orders ahead of first F1 2026 race
Oscar Piastri was told to hold position when trailing Lando Norris last time out in Melbourne.
Zak Brown has insisted McLaren’s drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are “free to race” as we return to a circuit that saw the team issue orders this time last year.
On lap 30 of the 2025 race, Piastri was told to “hold position” behind leader Norris but Brown insists that was not the team telling him not to attack his team-mate.
Zak Brown addresses McLaren team orders
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
After 2024 saw a few close calls, there was a high level of interest heading into 2025 on how McLaren would let their two drivers battle on track.
To McLaren’s credit, they refrained from using team orders too much and CEO Brown said that will be the modus operandi heading into the 2026 campaign.
“The identical thing would happen,” he said when asked if a repeat of the 2025 Australian GP were to occur. “And let me explain.
“They were free to race. If you look at what was happening in the race, we didn’t know if it was going to be wet or if it was going to be dry. You got Oscar coming up on Lando. We’ve got a good lead. We don’t know if we need to finish on these tyres. The track’s half wet, the track’s half dry. They’re coming up on traffic.
“It was hit the pause button. It was not stop. It was hit the pause button. You saw what happened not long after, both our guys went off so it was very tricky conditions.
More on McLaren from PlanetF1.com
* McLaren trailing ‘clear group’ at the front ahead of Australian Grand Prix
* Alex Palou welcomes ‘amicable conclusion’ to McLaren dispute
* Stella says F1 2026 battery management will not change development war
“So being free to race doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be points in a race where you have to assess what’s going on. So that was less about the competition. Had nothing to do with the competition about Lando and Oscar. We didn’t want to put both our cars at risk, not yet knowing how the weather and the track conditions were going to play out.
As Brown said, both Norris and Piastri went off the wet track but it was the Australian who suffered the worst fate as he failed to find any grip and slid off into the grass.
Looking ahead, Brown said people need to be “more informed” about a race when criticising any team orders.
“We’ve said that 100 times. To me, it makes perfect sense. I don’t understand why people once we’ve explained it, I get the heat of the moment when you’re watching the broadcast, but we’ve explained it, and I think what’s just come out of my mouth makes perfect sense.
“It was hit the pause button so we can see how this race plays out, and then you can go back to racing, which is exactly what we did.
“So I think that’s a good example of some people needing to be more informed about how a race plays out.”
Read next: F1 2026 power unit homologation deadline explained as March 1 arrives
Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.
You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!
