Brown: Ferrari McLaren's biggest challenge because of their drivers

Monday, 24 March 2025 at 09:00

Following his team’s scintillating start to the 2025 Formula 1 season, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has thrown down the gauntlet, calling out Ferrari as their biggest challengers for the rest of the year.

After Lewis Hamilton won the first sprint of the 2025 F1 campaign, Oscar Piastri stole back the momentum for McLaren, winning the Chinese Grand Prix in dominant fashion.

Though George Russell managed to drag his Mercedes onto the podium, Piastri was never truly challenged for the win, with Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Max Verstappen all a long way behind. Lando Norris may have put up a fight had his chances not been dashed by braking issues late on.

Amid suggestions that maintaining papaya rules would be his team’s biggest hurdle to claiming F1’s major prizes this year, Brown tipped Ferrari to become their strongest challengers.

Brown said: “I think Ferrari, over the course of the season, would be my guess. But I wouldn't want to have to make that prediction. We're taking them all very seriously.

“Ferrari are probably the biggest challenge because of their driver lineup. With Kimi [Antonelli] being a rookie, it's inevitable that he'll have some mega weekends, but he'll have a weekend or two where he's still learning.

“Red Bull obviously have their challenges with the driver situation there. So I think from a constructor’s point of view, you can kind of count on Lewis and Charles being there every single weekend.

"From a driver’s, I think it's going to be Max, George, Lewis, Charles, Oscar, and Lando," Brown maintained.

Ferrari still a few tenths off the front?

Australian Grand Prix FP2: Leclerc fastest, McLaren strong

After Hamilton comfortably opened the gap to Verstappen in the closing stages of the sprint last Saturday, you could feel the Tifosi start to believe. But the main event was a very different story.

Hamilton and Leclerc not only touched at turn one, they didn’t look like laying a glove on McLaren for the entire grand prix. With the illustrious Brit struggling for pace, the team even opted to invert the drivers, moving Leclerc’s damaged car ahead in a bid to catch Russell in third. Adding insult to injury, they were later disqualified.

Post-race, Leclerc played down his team's chances of taking the fight to Norris and Piastri. With the Scuderia still a few tenths off in qualifying trim, he emphasized that they cannot expect to work “miracles” from further back on the grid — the car needs more outright pace.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur, on the other hand, was more upbeat, choosing to focus on the positives of the weekend while maintaining that the gap between the top teams remains miniscule.

Vasseur explained: “The pole of Lewis, the win of Lewis yesterday, and I would say the pace of Charles during the race with the front wing damage, the loss of downforce that we had — the pace was mega. These are the positives of the weekend.

“Honestly, we are all struggling to understand Saturday evening [qualifying]. But I think everything is open. It's exciting for us, for the fans, for everybody, because from one session to another you can have a completely different picture.”

Brown’s real challenge: Maintaining ‘papaya rules’

Brown: Ferrari the biggest challenge because of their drivers

At a weather-affected Australian Grand Prix, we witnessed the first clash of the season between Norris and Piastri. Ultimately, the Aussie was unable to keep pace, then spun off in a race-ruining mistake on lap 44 of 57 while trying to recover from an off-track moment.

However, since throwing away a chance of winning his home grand prix, Piastri has bounced back impressively. After a late safety car offered an opportunity to pick up points in Australia, a faultless performance in China has reestablished his credentials as a potential title-winner.

Faced with the prospect of an all-McLaren championship battle, Brown reiterated that his drivers are free to race so long as they continue putting the team’s interests first.

Brown added: “They had team orders [in China]. It was go race each other! So I think we're going to see more of that this year.

“But they have so much respect for each other. They know they're racing for the team, and I'm sure we're going to see some epic Oscar-Lando battles over the course of the year. It’s sure to be quite stressful. But hey, we're in grand prix racing.”

Heading into the next round, it’s still unclear whether McLaren will face a serious challenge from Ferrari, Mercedes, or Verstappen this season. We’ll find out more at the Japanese Grand Prix from April 4-6, 2025. (

Quotes by F1TV)