This is a Zak Brown interview. But let's start with the two words that open every debate and haunt every McLaren head here in Abu Dhabi. Max Verstappen.
Inside the hospitality area in an anteroom next to McLaren boss Brown's office, talk kicks off with mention of the Dutchman, even of his dad Jos. Brown, chief protector of Lando Norris's title flame (and of team-mate Oscar Piastri's), raced against Jos the Boss in 1992 and considered him damn quick, knocking at world championship potential if only fate had dealt him a fairer hand, rather than half-a-season at Benetton with Michael Schumacher and then a move down the grid.
Brown and Verstappen Jnr have been in touch in the last few days. Brown appreciates his dry humour. And he likes Verstappen's response to his claim that the Red Bull man resembled a horror movie character who refuses to die.
'Chucky' was how Verstappen christened himself after winning in Qatar last week, referring to the death-defying character in the Child's Play movie franchise from the late Eighties. 'I liked that,' chortles Brown.
This conversation takes place at 11am as the paddock is filling up with early staff arrivals. At 4pm, Brown is on stage in a three-way press conference with Verstappen's new boss Laurent Mekies and Sauber team principal Jonathan Wheatley. The same two words predominate again.
What is behind Verstappen's revival/resourcefulness/talent/technique? Is he in Lando's mind/looming in McLaren's mirrors? And so on.
McLaren boss Zak Brown is in relaxed mood ahead of the season finale on Sunday. 'We have the best driver line-up in Formula One because we want to be a two-car team,' says Brown. 'I wouldn't want to change the pairing'
Brown does admit he admires Red Bull's Max Verstappen (pictured) calling him 'awesome' and 'stellar' but is happy with his drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
But no matter whether Verstappen closes his 12-point deficit to Norris in Sunday's dusk-to-night race and nicks a fifth consecutive title, Brown has ruled out trying to sign Verstappen for McLaren.
'We have the best driver line-up in Formula One because we want to be a two-car team,' says Brown. 'I wouldn't want to change the pairing. Max is awesome, stellar - of course - but I like what we have going on here. I like the drivers and the way they work together.
'It is so easy to focus on one driver and give him all the upgrades. Here we do not have a No1 and No2. We treat our drivers equally, unless one of them is mathematically out of contention.'
Note, Brown does not say he employs the best two drivers in the world, but that they represent the best double-act. Both are on long-term deals and are considerable drivers. All three have won seven grands prix this season, though clearly the McLaren has been the better car for most of the year until Red Bull's rapid procession over the past three months.
Yet, but for disqualification in Las Vegas last month, when both McLarens ran illegal skid planks, Norris would now be world champion rather than nervously awaiting his fate. Last weekend's calamitous strategy error in Doha was another blow, handing victory to Verstappen on a papaya platter.
Downstairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, chairman of McLaren, admits to feeling a few flutters as result of these setbacks. The team are stumbling to the line rather than surging there, though McLaren's revival over recent years is a runaway success story.
Norris is in pole position to win the driver's title ahead of the final race and Brown says the mood in the camp is 'great'
Piastri in practice on Friday ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Australian could steal the title from his team-mate Norris
Their second successive constructors' title was delivered in Singapore on October 5, which makes this last-minute wobble all the harder to accept.
Brown, an ebullient workaholic and former marketing go-getter, as well as former racing driver, knows this but is downplaying it.
But he is continuing the rhythm of this crucial weekend as if the greatest prize in motor racing were not on the line. Business as usual is the mantra.
But that is not the case. Both Norris and Piastri spoke - impressively according to Brown - at a team barbeque a couple of days ago. Neither, however, is fulfilling more than his obligatory FIA media duties. Both were pulled from smaller gatherings to help them focus on the job of winning the title.
Brown, an American sports lover, and his Italian team boss Andrea Stella have insisted on a level-playing field, though Piastri's fellow countrymen believe he is being discriminated against by the Woking-based team. The concern was raised in the Australian Parliament by Senator Matt Canavan, who claimed to be speaking on behalf of his children. 'Real ignorance and nonsense,' says Brown of this eccentric intervention.
But, in news that will be received as rapturously Down Under as a Ben Stokes hat-trick, Brown has modified his team's approach to racing for this weekend, explaining that his two drivers will swap positions in the final moments of the action if required to keep Verstappen out of contention. In reality, this would mean Norris being favoured, given his lead. It makes total sense, but Brown holds back from explicit phraseology. No mention of 'team orders'.
'We want to win the drivers' championship,' is how Brown terms it. 'We are coming into this knowing we have two horses in the race, and they start with equal opportunities, but if the scenario develops in a way where we have to do something because one guy is not going to win, and one driver can help the other... well... we want to win the drivers' championship.
'It would be at that late stage and up until then we would let the race play out. You can have safety cars and reliability so it wouldn't be until it is clear one can win it, and one can't, then we would not cost ourselves by not being in the right position relative to Max. We won't be stubborn. There is a lot at stake.
'We will be aware of the situation and be sensitive to it,' Brown says of the fallout of the upcoming final race where either Piastri (left), Norris or both will be disappointed
Norris was quickest in both of Friday's practice sessions which will be a huge boost for him going to the final race
'This is the decision of Andrea and me. We are so aligned on how we go racing that we never need to challenge ourselves. We almost don't need to talk about it.'
Such is the sportsmanship between the pair that Brown has no doubts Piastri would comply with such an instruction to facilitate Norris. Brown, however, will not be on the radio himself to his drivers. He never is, other than when the chequered flag is waved on the season. He has a button that opens up a private channel to Stella and to nobody else.
'I don't want anyone in the team sniggering behind my back because I am seen to be interfering in something I have had no role in - such as portraying that I set the strategy,' he reasons. 'I don't want to lose credibility or be a show-off, any more than I am!'
Is he feeling nerves? Yes, but he always feels them regardless of the title situation as a race approaches. His tactic is to distract himself, talking to people or busying himself as the hours and more particularly the minutes to the start tick by.
'The mood within the team is great,' he says. 'And I am excited. It's like our game seven. I have told them that as a kid you did not dream of winning Monaco by one lap. You dreamt of (taking it) on the final corner, full lock, sideways past Senna.'
But one of them won't make the final pass at Yas Marina to fulfil a childhood dream of a maiden title. Maybe neither McLaren man will, though Norris was quickest in both yesterday's practice sessions, a tonic for him.
'The mood within the team is great,' says Brown on the eve of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 'And I am excited'
How will Brown rebuild his beaten driver(s)? 'You need to be natural in how you treat them,' he says of the inevitable post-race trauma. 'Both get it - there are three different scenarios, and we don't want to talk about them all (double defeat) for now.
'We saw it at the British Grand Prix for example. Oscar was going to win (but for a soft penalty behind the safety car). He was gutted. The British driver had won his home race and is ecstatic and the other guy is p* off he has lost a grand prix. I can read Oscar's body language and I can read Lando's. We will be aware of this situation and be sensitive to it. We treat our people well at this organisation.'
Brown, not unreasonably, points to McLaren's successes regardless of what lies in store across 58 laps tomorrow. 'We are only the second team to score more than 800 points in a season. We tied the record of winning the earliest constructors' title. Both drivers have won seven races and led the championship from the start.'
Max Verstappen has not led once. And for all their blistering successes, McLaren's season will be judged on whether they keep it that way. Or not.
