Jeffrey Dean Morgan takes aim at Zak Brown after tight 2025 F1 title finish
Jeffrey Dean Morgan doesn’t do half-measures on screen, and he clearly doesn’t on social media either. In the wake of a 2025 season that went down to the wire, the American actor and long-time F1 fan unloaded on McLaren CEO Zak Brown, accusing the team boss of tipping the scales inside his own garage.
“Zak Brown is such a weanie,” Morgan wrote on X, in a burst of posts that quickly did the rounds among paddock-watchers. “Screws up his own team but only cries about EVERYTHING else… Feel bad for Piastri. Hope he bails.”
The jabs came as the dust settled on a bruising, brilliantly intense title fight that officially ended with Lando Norris as the 2025 Formula One world champion. Per the season standings, Norris edged Max Verstappen by two points, with Norris’s McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri third. It was the championship McLaren have been chasing for years, and it arrived with their two young stars front and center — and, inevitably, with just enough drama to keep the conspiracy theorists fed all winter.
Morgan, who’s been watching F1 since the early ’70s by his own telling, wasn’t shy about where he felt the tipping point was. He pointed to flashpoints that lit up social media during the run-in and suggested McLaren’s calls leaned too far toward Norris. “Trophy for boning Oscar is about it,” he wrote, continuing the theme. “God I hope Piastri tells him to shove it where the sun don’t shine. Papaya rules my ass. Lando rules perhaps.”
If that sounds harsh, it’s because the debate around McLaren’s handling of its title-chasing pair has been a live wire for months. The team repeatedly said both drivers were free to race and that they’d keep it even-handed, and in the finale there was no late-race swap needed: Norris scored what he needed on merit, with Piastri right there on pace. But when a championship is decided by the tiniest of margins — and between teammates for much of the season — every strategy call and radio message becomes referendum material.
Morgan saved his warmest words for the man who missed out. “Max Verstappen,” he posted. “Period… He’s my champion. My god, what a second half of season. Just the best.” Verstappen’s charge back into contention defined the autumn and forced McLaren to thread the needle under pressure. In the end, two points was the sliver that split them — no more, no less — and that’s a stat that will sting in Milton Keynes and soothe in Woking.
As for Piastri, the 24-year-old banked a heavy points haul of his own across the year and carried the title conversation deep into the finale. There were moments where he left some on the table — what contender doesn’t in a season this long? — but the Australian’s raw speed and composure were never in doubt. Morgan thinks he should take that toolkit elsewhere. The reality, for now, is simpler: McLaren’s driver line-up delivered a drivers’ title and a one-three in the standings. That’s not the kind of season that typically triggers an offseason fire sale.
Celebrity commentary isn’t new to F1, but Morgan’s bursts had a particular bite — maybe because he framed them like an old-school fan, not a Netflix convert. “Started watching F1 in early 70s with my gramma,” he wrote. That lends his take some heart, even if McLaren will shrug at the wording and point to the scoreboard.
Brown, for his part, won’t mind the noise as long as the trophy case is heavier. Inside McLaren, the headline is uncomplicated: they beat Red Bull to a drivers’ crown in a straight fight, with Norris finally converting years of promise into a title campaign that survived Verstappen’s late ambush. Outside, the talking points will linger. Did McLaren strike the balance perfectly? Did they lean? Could they have played it cleaner? That’s offseason barstool fodder now.
It’s also the kind of argument F1 thrives on. One team, two elite drivers, one title — and a celebrity throwing elbows from the cheap seats. The sport didn’t need any extra spice after a finale decided by two points, but it got some anyway.
