McLaren ask Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri very awkward question that may haunt them

Zak Brown has revealed that McLaren plan to ask Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri how they want the team to celebrate when the Drivers' Championship title is decided. With Max Verstappen now effectively out of the picture, the crown looks to be going to one of the Woking squad's drivers. Heading into the final 10 races of the 2025 campaign, only nine points separated Drivers' Championship leader Piastri from team-mate Norris.

The Brit has won three of the last four races, dragging himself back into contention after a slow start to the season. Behind the McLaren drivers, the rest of the field is being cut adrift. Verstappen, who has won each of the last four World Championships, is 97 points behind Piastri with that deficit growing wider as Red Bull's decline continues. George Russell is also out of contention, despite scoring six podiums and a victory this year.

This means that McLaren can safely plan ahead for their crowning moment. Speaking to The Race about the conversations that will take place at Woking, Brown explained: "We'll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go 'Right, one of you is going to win.

'It's going to be the best day of your life - one of you is going to lose, how do you want us to handle that? You want us to jump up and down and celebrate this guy [who] won?' We're fully aware and sensitive to how you celebrate that situation.

"And I think we'll just sit down with the drivers and come to an agreement: 'One of you is not going to be the champion. How do you want us to act?' That's the way we think. It comes back to thinking about our people."

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While the consideration from Brown will be appreciated by the drivers, answering this question ahead of time puts Norris and Piastri in difficult positions. Naturally, it is impossible for the duo, who are both chasing their first-ever F1 titles, to know how they will feel in Abu Dhabi when the battle concludes.

For now, however, both drivers are focused on beating the other on track. Such is McLaren's advantage over rivals Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull, it is hard for Norris and Piastri to eke out more than a seven-point gain over a race weekend, with the duo now on a run of four straight one-two finishes.

"It's going to come down to execution," Brown predicted. "It's clear, from a pace point of view, there's nothing in it. So, it's going to come down to consistency of execution - or it could come down to luck of the draw: weather, safety car, or one guy gets wiped out by someone else on the track."