Image source, Getty Images
Lando Norris (left) is nine points behind McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in the Formula 1 standings after winning Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix
McLaren Formula 1 boss Zak Brown says Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will "not properly fall out" as their title fight comes to a head.
Brown, McLaren Racing's chief executive officer, said he expects the pair to "swap paint again at some point" after Norris ran into the back of Piastri in Canada in June.
But he added: "I don't think they'll properly fall out because of the communication, trust and respect we all have, and they have for each other.
"We're very fortunate to have the two personalities that we have. We love the challenge. I'm looking forward to them racing each other."
Norris cut Piastri's lead to nine points with victory in last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, the last race before F1 heads into its summer break.
Piastri has won six races to Norris' five this season, and they have won 11 of the 14 races so far between them.
Racing resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix on 29-31 August and Brown says he expects their battle to remain fair.
"I've said to both of them individually, at windows of opportunity, has your team-mate ever done anything to annoy you? 'Never'. And that's what they both said," Brown added.
"So there's competitiveness brewing. We're not feeling any tension. As the championship builds I'm sure that tension will grow, but like Montreal - I'm glad we got it out of the way, because it was a non-event, Lando owned it, Oscar understood, it was a mistake."
Brown said that although he expects the two drivers to end up colliding again, he was "very confident it won't be deliberate".
He added: "I'm positive they're never going to run each other off the track, and that's where you get into bad blood."
And he said that McLaren would deal with any tension that evolves in the same way they have managed the relationship between the drivers so far.
"If something bubbles up, we'll deal with it," he said. "And how we operate, which is [in] an open, transparent, deal with it right away [manner].
"It seems like from the outside looking in, when you've seen battles between other team-mates, you've kind of seen it brewing, and you kind of go like 'have they jumped on that, or are they just kind of letting it build up?'
"We'll take the air out of the balloon right away, if we feel like anything's bubbling up, but we've not seen any of it."
Brown said it was vital for McLaren for the two to remain on good terms because they both have long-term contracts.
"They're going to be racing against each other for a long time in the same team," he said, "so it's important that relationship continues to grow, because the relationship's not just about this year, but it bleeds into next year, and they're going to be together for a long time".
'They both can smell the championship'
Brown believes Red Bull's Max Verstappen is still in with an outside chance of the title, even though the Dutchman is 97 points behind Piastri.
But he said that if it comes to a point where the championship is clearly between just the two McLaren drivers, he and team principal Andrea Stella plan to discuss with Norris and Piastri how to handle the inevitable situation where one wins the title and the other loses it.
Brown said: "They both can smell the championship, and only one can win it, so I'm sure it'll be hard on the one that doesn't win the championship, assuming the other one does.
"We'll just sit down and actually have a conversation, and go: 'Right, one of you is going to win, and it's going to be the best day of your life, one of you is going to lose, and you're going to be [devastated], how do you want us to handle that, how do you want us to act?
"We'll be very considerate about that approach, because that's the way we think, it comes back to thinking about our people."
Brown rejected as "not accurate" what he called "the narrative" around Norris that he was mentally more fragile than Piastri.
"Lando's open, he kind of wears his emotions on his sleeve, so to speak," Brown said. "Everyone's different, but he's in a great place. I've never seen him in a better place. He's doing an awesome job."
He compared the current commentary about Norris to a previous one, in which some observers claimed he was not capable of winning from pole position - after a handful of victories slipped away last year.
Brown said: "The, he can't win from pole stat, now that he's won four, or five races, from pole, no-one seems to be talking about that."