Zak Brown defends decision to keep details of Lando Norris ‘repercussions’ private

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has defended the decision not to make public details of Lando Norris’ “consequences” following his collision with teammate Oscar Piastri at the Singapore Grand Prix.

In the opening corners of the Marina Bay race, Norris made contact with the rear of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, before bouncing off Piastri’s McLaren. With the Briton having gained a position on his teammate, Piastri asked for the places to be reversed and expressed his displeasure on the radio, having commented “it wasn’t very collective” before asking: “So, are we cool with Lando sidelining me?”

Ahead of the US Grand Prix weekend, Norris admitted to facing “repercussions for the rest of the season” over the incident, while team principal Andrea Stella explained that the consequences had been accepted by both drivers.

As questions continue about the nature of the repercussions, Brown was asked during Friday’s news conference in Austin why he and the team didn’t feel the need to reveal what it entailed.

“We’re racing against nine other teams, and I don’t think you necessarily want to show your influence in the way you drive motor racing,” he explained. “We try to be as transparent as possible, but there’s a reason technical debriefs only happen with teams, otherwise you start inviting other teams.

“I think that’s the best we can do. We’re trying to be as transparent as possible in saying that certain steps have been taken, so I think it’s been very transparent.

“But at the end of the day, we’re at a sporting event and we can’t necessarily tell everyone everything, no different than our prep sheets aren’t very public.”

The ‘Papaya Rules’ – the code of conduct that Piastri and Norris abide by on the race track – have become a growing topic of discussion as the pair engage in their championship battle, with Brown admitting the policy has “taken on a bit of a life of its own”.

He added: “We just want to make sure that while they’re running hard, they’re not bunching up because it puts them in danger, it puts the team in danger, so we agreed with them in the offseason how we would handle certain situations.

“It was a fairly minor incident at the start of a Grand Prix. It’s quite chaotic [in those moments]it was a wet track, it was clearly not intentional, and so we thought with them about different consequences for different situations. It was a pretty minor situation, so it’s a pretty minor consequence.

Pressed again to share details of the “consequences” Norris suffered, Brown said: “No, we don’t want to get into that. I think it’s a private matter between us.

“I know everyone is interested to know, but both drivers are in a great position and we just want to be able to prepare them to be able to continue to compete hard.”