Zak Brown responds to Alan Jones’ “mentally weak” takedown of Lando Norris

McLaren CEO Zak Brown issued a response to 1980 F1 world champion Alan Jones calling his driver Lando Norris “mentally weak”.

Talking to Fox Sports Australia, Jones felt fellow Australian Oscar Piastri was already in Norris’ head, labelling the Briton as weak. “He [Piastri] can do it [win the title] this year, no question,” Jones claimed. “At the end of the day, his teammate is weak.

“His team-mate is quite quick; there’s no doubt about that. But mentally, I think he’s quite a weak person. He’s coming out with all this nonsense that he’s got a bit of a mental thing, he’s dwelling on some of the problems he’s had rather than the positives. When they start talking all that nonsense, you know you’ve got them.”

When those comments were put to Brown at the Miami Grand Prix, the McLaren CEO strongly disagreed with Jones’ comments, explaining Norris just uses his overt self-criticism as a tool to perform.

1980 F1 drivers champion Alan Jones

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“First of all, I’m a big Alan Jones fan,” Brown said. “I think it’s easy and understandable for people to have a view on other people from the outside looking in.

“Lando’s always very open with his comments. I think you see different athletes talking about what they’ve done in different ways. Some don’t talk about it at all, some talk about it a lot. I think it’s all a way for them to get it out of their system and move on.

“I just spent some quality time with Novak Djokovic, which I thought was fascinating on how he uses his range of emotions to perform. So no, I didn’t agree with the comments, but I understand why he might have that view. And he was a tough guy, right? So that’s probably not how he would roll. So, yeah, one person’s opinion.”

Norris struggled comparatively versus Piastri to get the maximum performance out of McLaren’s 2025 car, which has undergone significant changes that made it more difficult for Norris to drive on the limit compared with last year’s machine.

When asked what Norris’ approach should be to regain his confidence in driving the MCL39, Brown replied: “I think he needs to stop striving for perfection. If you talk to any driver, they’ll always say they’ve never done the perfect lap, so I think just focus on doing the best you can.

“He did a great job yesterday, leading the championship up until last race, he’s ten points behind. I think he’s got as good chance a at pole and winning this races, anyone.”

He added: “For me, perfection is do the best you can and if you miss that apex by three inches or a meter too late, that’s going to happen. So, I think striving for doing the best you can is the best approach.

“We do a 1.8 second pit stop. I bet we can do a 1.78, but don’t go into each pit stop going: ‘I’m going to do a 1.78;. Just go into each pit stop doing the best you can. So, I think that’s a better place to be.”

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