Brown on Norris and Piastri title battle: Let ‘em race!

Piastri has aggressively shown he won’t sit behind teammate Norris, not allowing the Briton to become the anointed number one driver at McLaren Racing. The Aussie did it by winning three of the first five GPs this season to take hold of the lead in the driver standings.

Norris, at one time McLaren’s designated champion-in-waiting, sits 10 points back from Piastri with one victory on the season. And as F1 shifts to the United States for the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, McLaren boss Zak Brown insisted there will be no internal issues with this championship fight and, for now, he’ll let it play out naturally.

“Let ‘em race!” Brown vowed to The Associated Press. He will not designate a No. 1 and issue any team orders until a time comes when one of the drivers has clearly separated himself in the title race. We’ll only make that decision if it becomes clear, like it did last year at a certain point.

“Until then they will get the same treatment. There may be instances when one has an upgrade that the other doesn’t have yet, but that’s the extent of it right now. We want to let them race,” Brown insisted.

Norris earned his first career victory at Miami last year when he snapped Max Verstappen’s two-race winning streak at the event staged around Hard Rock Stadium. Norris, hyped as McLaren’s great hope, had picked up the derogatory moniker “Lando No Wins” when he arrived in Miami, where he promptly shed the label and had a rowdy South Beach victory celebration.

“I kind of envy Lando for getting his first race win here, because I’m sure Sunday night was definitely a cool one,” said rival Pierre Gasly. “It’s one of those races you want the Sunday to go well so you get a good reason to party on Sunday night.

How was Norris’ party? “I don’t remember,” Gasly said with a sheepish grin.

Norris was then asked if he’s concerned that Piastri has seized momentum by winning three races since Norris’ lone victory: “Not worried at all. He’s doing a good job and he deserves it. Nothing more than that.

“I don’t believe so much in the momentum stuff. I’m doing what I can. I’ve clearly made some mistakes and not at the level I need to be, but I believe I can be at that level soon enough.

“It’s round six of 24. I’m not going to say that forever, but I know I need to get a move on and get into gear a little bit,” Norris continued. “The speed is there, the pace is there, the race pace is definitely there. It’s just one thing I need to tidy up. It’s a difficult thing, but I’m confident I’ll get it," insisted Norris.

Piastri and Norris will line up P2 and P3 on the grid, behind history-making pole sitter Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes for today's Miami Grand Prix Sprint Race.