Oscar Piastri dismisses Zak Brown villain claims despite ‘tough moments’ at McLaren

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Oscar Piastri has dismissed suggestions that Zak Brown became a villain figure amid the 2025 F1 drivers’ title fight, despite enduring some “tough moments” at McLaren.

Piastri emerged as a genuine contender for the F1 drivers’ championship for the first time in his career last term. The 24-year-old also led the 2025 standings for more days than anyone achieved, having topped the table for 189 out of a potential 266 days from rounds five to 20.

But a late-season collapse saw Piastri’s title hopes fall apart, despite having topped the table over McLaren teammate and eventual champion Lando Norris after 15 out of the 24 rounds by 34 points. Red Bull ace Max Verstappen also trailed Piastri by 104 points after 15 rounds.

McLaren ordering Piastri to give P2 in the 2025 Italian Grand Prix back to Norris and a clutch of other incidents of team orders saw claims emerge that the team were favouring the latter. Australian senator Matt Canavan even raised the question of bias in a Senate Rural session.

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Oscar Piastri claims his relationship with McLaren CEO Zak Brown has ‘only gotten stronger’

But while some believed McLaren favoured Norris, Piastri has firmly shut down suggestions that CEO Brown was a villain. Speaking ahead of the start of the 2026 F1 season at his home race in his home town of Melbourne, Piastri is clear that his relationship with Brown is solid.

READ MORE: All you need to know about the 2026 F1 season, from the calendar to drivers

In fact, Piastri would argue that his relationship with Brown has “only gotten stronger”, even though there were naturally some “tough moments” at McLaren during the 2025 title fight. Norris eventually won the 2025 title by just two points over Verstappen and 13 over Piastri.

“My relationship with Zak is very good,” Piastri said, via quotes by Auto Action. “And you know, I think it’s gotten stronger the longer we’ve known each other, as well.

“He’s certainly good fun, and he’s just good to have around you. But, no, the relationship between Zak and I is good.

“Obviously, we, just as a team, not necessarily Zak and I, but obviously we had some tough moments through last year, as any team has. But I think our relationship has only gotten stronger.”

McLaren’s team orders in 2025 naturally led to some claims of favouritism towards Lando Norris

McLaren were often accused of favouring Norris over Piastri in the 2025 F1 drivers’ title fight as CEO Brown and team principal Andrea Stella relentlessly stuck to their desire to allow the pair to both try to win the championship, but occasionally used orders that favoured Norris.

Some could argue that it would only have been natural for at least a few in McLaren to have wanted Norris to win the title, being a British driver in a British team he has driven for since his debut in 2019 and had been a part of since his junior career while Piastri joined in 2023.

McLaren rejecting Piastri’s appeal to swap positions after a penalty in the 2025 British Grand Prix gifted Norris the lead (and eventually the win) started the suggestions of bias, as Piastri felt wronged by a controversial penalty for a safety car restart incident in Norris’ home race.

It also did not help to allay the claims when McLaren let Norris adopt a one-stop strategy in the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, while Piastri ran a two-stopper, which let the Briton take the lead and pip the Australian. The incident at Monza was then the biggest factor in the claims.

McLaren assured Norris that he would not be undercut in the Italian GP if he let Piastri stop first. But a slower stop for the former meant he did fall behind, which Piastri believed would not lead to any team orders due to his understanding of the papaya rules that McLaren use.