Appearing on the Sky F1 season review, McLaren CEO Zak Brown shared his thoughts on the experience gained by Lando Norris during his first championship campaign and called for the application of more common sense in the interpretation of the FIA rulebook.
The Woking-based team closed their F1 2024 chapter by breaking their 26-year title drought in a thrilling season finale at the Yas Marina Circuit. As they beat their historic rival Ferrari by 14 points to clinch the constructors’ title, Norris finished runner-up to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship in a season that spawned multiple controversies over the F1 sporting regulations.
McLaren CEO believes Norris learnt how to race Verstappen in 2024
Following McLaren’s resurgence at the Miami GP last year, Verstappen and Norris registered the most 1-2 podium finishes in the 2024 season. While the four-time race winner ultimately failed to end Verstappen’s title streak, he emerged as the Dutchman’s closest challenger over the course of the season.
Highlighting that Norris mounted his first title bid against the reigning world champion in 2024, Brown remarked that the 25-year-old learnt how to modify his racecraft after Verstappen outmanoeuvred him several times during the season.
“Lando’s [Norris] probably done more racing against Max [Verstappen] this year than anyone else. So he’s had to learn how to race Max.
“You know, back when I was racing, you always kind of had to learn what each competitor did, probably no different than on a football pitch. So I think he’s learned a lot there.”
Zak Brown criticises over-regulation of the FIA rulebook and calls for more commonsense ruling in F1
The 2024 season also witnessed multiple teams and drivers call into question the FIA’s stewarding standards and the handling of penalties for on-track incidents. Speaking on the topic, the McLaren CEO called for a reevaluation of the sporting regulations.
Insisting that they should apply more common sense instead of abiding by the letter of the law, Brown implied that the F1 teams are responsible for the strict interpretation of the rules that the FIA currently adheres to.
Furthermore, suggesting that certain penalties awarded to drivers in 2024 for breaching track limits and racing incidents were too harsh, the 53-year-old remarked that allowing the sport’s governing body to assess different on-track situations with a creative lens would promote more organic racing.
“I think the rule book, which we’re all responsible for, needs to be looked at because we’re kind of almost over-regulated in our rules.
“Things are too literal, and I think we need to apply a little bit more common sense and racer instinct to situations, give the FIA a little bit more freedom.
“But we kind of only have ourselves to blame for being so prescriptive that now when penalties are brought out, it’s like, well, that’s what the rule book says. I think we need to give a little bit more creative licence to go, ‘yeah, but that situation was a little different than that situation’.
“So I think there’s work to be done on how we go racing, because, when I was growing up, there weren’t any of these rules, and everything seemed to be pretty fine most of the time.
“And now we’re living in an era of track limits and five-second penalties and stop-and-goes, and I think it’s too much, and we just need to pull that back a little bit.”
