Brown braces for McLaren civil war

Chief ready to soothe the broken hearts

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McLaren boss Zak Brown is preparing to deal with disappointment at the end of the Formula One season, even as the team enjoy one of their most dominant years and a 200th grand prix win at the weekend.

As the title battle between Oscar Piastri and teammate Lando Norris heats up, the McLaren pair separated by just nine points after Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the American conceded he was thinking also about how to handle the aftermath.

Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen, the McLaren drivers’ closest rival, is now 97 points off the pace and told reporters at the weekend that he may not win again this year given his car's issues.

Even before the weekend, both Piastri and Norris cast caution aside and called it a two-horse race.

One of them will surely end the year celebrating a dream come true.

The other will rue what might have been, with a new engine era next season shaking everything up again and chances potentially disappearing.

Losing always hurts, doubly so when it is to a teammate with the same car, and Brown said McLaren would have to deal with the situation sensitively.