Piastri dismisses Zak Brown's friendship concerns after drivers' Langkawi getaway

Oscar Piastri has dismissed concerns that off-track friendships between Formula 1 drivers could soften their racing instincts, after a group of seven current drivers — including his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris — spent time together on the Malaysian island of Langkawi between the Azerbaijan and Bahrain Grands Prix.

The trip brought together Piastri, Norris, Mercedes’ George Russell, Haas’s Oliver Bearman, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Williams pair Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz. Russell shared updates on Instagram, with the post accumulating over 950,000 likes. Piastri commented on the post: “Cheers for picking up the bill” — to which Russell later clarified that most of the bills had indeed ended up on his tab.

The holiday comes with a backdrop of mild controversy. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown wrote in his book that he prefers his drivers not to be friends, arguing that off-track closeness can make them reluctant to race each other hard. Asked at the Bahrain Grand Prix media day at Sepang International Circuit whether Brown had been in touch about the trip, Piastri was relaxed.

“No, he hasn’t,” the Australian said. “It was pretty last-minute.”

For Piastri, the value of the getaway lay in the rarity of the setting rather than any concern about competitive consequences. “It was good fun just being able to switch off from racing a bit. It’s very rare that you get so many drivers together, just spending time together away from a racetrack,” he said.

“At the end of the day, we’re 22 guys that love racing. Obviously, it’s a bit tricky to talk about certain things because we are racing each other. We’ve got a lot in common that we just never really get to talk about. So it was quite nice.”

Piastri also noted that the group was not joined at the hip throughout — though one activity did bring out the competitive streak. “We all did our own separate things at points and whatever; it wasn’t like we were attached to each other for the whole time, but maybe on the go-kart track we were. No, it was good fun, honestly, and I enjoyed it.”