F1 boss agrees with Lewis Hamilton plea over return of controversial rule outlawed over safety concerns

McLaren will enter Formula 1’s new regulations in 2026 as the team to beat – but Zak Brown has no issue spicing up the rules even further.

The American CEO oversaw the first driver’s championship win of his tenure on Sunday following Lando Norris‘ triumph in Abu Dhabi.

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Bristolian racer Norris became the 11th Brit to be crowned F1 champion after his third-placed finish was enough to claim glory.

The 26-year-old beat Max Verstappen by just two points to become McLaren’s first driver’s champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

His title win was part of the Woking-based team’s double glory this year, having also successfully defended their constructors’ crown.

Norris’ dramatic victory came down to F1’s season finale, largely due to a double disqualification for McLaren in Las Vegas in round 22.

F1’s governing body, the FIA, announced that the Brit and teammate Oscar Piastri were disqualified for ‘excessive skid block wear’.

Brown, who described the rule behind the double DQ for his drivers in Sin City as ‘draconian’, has his own ideas on how to shake things up.

Zak Brown calls for return of refuelling

“I think if we got back into refuelling, it would be cool,” McLaren’s boss exclusively told talkSPORT.com.

“That would make pit stops, add another dimension to it, but also add a big strategic dimension.

“If you got into refuelling, weight makes such a difference. Do you run heavy at the start and go long? Do you run light to get a better start?

“So I would add a lot of dimensions to the strategy that I think would be fascinating.”

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Why has refuelling banned?

Modern F1 cars must have a tank of fuel suitable to run entire races before the start of each grand prix (up to 110kgs).

Drivers, who will be disqualified if they can’t provide 1 litre of fuel at the end of an event, haven’t been able to refuel since 2010.

Cost and safety concerns led to the FIA’s ban, with several incidents of fuel spillage causing cars to burst into flames during pit stops.

Most infamously, Verstappen’s father Jos saw his Benetton vehicle erupt at the 1994 German Grand Prix.

However, Ferrari’s Hamilton has been among the voices calling for a return to refuelling to fix weight issues affecting new F1 cars.

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McLaren fear over Norris donuts after F1 title win

The skid block wear rule shows no sign of abating, which allowed Verstappen to pile on the pressure with just two races to go.

It was also a factor McLaren themselves were acutely aware of in the immediate aftermath of Norris’ title win last weekend.

The Brit ignored his race engineer, Will Joseph, not to do any burnouts (Donuts) on his way to parc ferme.

McLaren boss Brown has since revealed the team had no problem with Norris’ celebration – after they’d confirmed there was no repeat of their Vegas rule break that could have changed the race result.

“We wanted to make sure we were totally fine on weight,” Brown added to talkSPORT. “We were fine, but it was just like, take no risk on anything technically, and when you do burnouts, you take weight off the tyre.

“So it was nothing more than that, but he ignored us.

“There was nothing to worry about; we were just being very cautious, coming out of Vegas.

“Yeah, 100 per cent [knew Norris was gonna do burnouts/donuts].

“As long as we don’t have any issues [he can do it again if he wins the title in 2026 as well], I think we would have been a little cautious.”

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Biggest lesson learnt

“Block out the noise,” Brown continued. “Stay focused on the mission, stay focused, true to yourself and the team on what your racing principles are, because everyone had an opinion on what we should be doing.

“[Felt the noise] All throughout the season.

“The way we treated our drivers equally and gave them equal opportunity meant sometimes that they took points off of each other, which you could say compromises their individual championships.

“But when you have two number one drivers, you’ve got to give them equal opportunity.

“And if the risk, which the risk is 2007, we had Fernando [Alonso] and Lewis tied on points, and then Kimi Räikkönen won the championship, because Ferrari was focused on Kimi as a driver’s championship.

“When you have two number one drivers, you’ve got to treat them equally.”