McLaren CEO Zak Brown has affirmed his team will not shy away from using team orders in pursuit of the drivers' championship this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Lando Norris enters the race event in the lead of the drivers' standings, 16 points clear of Oscar Piastri in third.
Lodged between the two McLaren drivers is Max Verstappen who is 12 points adrift of Norris in the runner-up spot.
Both McLaren drivers insisted ahead of the weekend that the team orders scenario has not been discussed, with team principal Andrea Stella indicating after Qatar that the two are free to race at the season finale.
Speaking to Sky F1 in Abu Dhabi, Brown highlighted it will implement team orders if it becomes clear during the race that one driver is clearly holding the upper hand.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “We're realistic. We want to win this drivers' championship.
“We're coming into the weekend knowing that they both have equal opportunity, even though there's obviously a point spread.
"You don't know how qualifying is going to go, reliability, but if we get into the race and it's becoming pretty clear that one has a chance and the other doesn't, we're going to do what we can to win the drivers' championship. It would be crazy not to.
"We want to win the drivers' championship. So, we'll kind of see how the race plays out, but we're not going to not win the championship because we're trying to protect a third and a fourth or a sixth and a seventh, or however the situation may play out."
Brown added that both drivers will want their team-mate to win if their own chance of a maiden title slips away.
"It's a team sport, right? So, we're trying to win the constructors' (title) as a team and we're trying to win the drivers' as a team.
"I know that kind of sounds a bit strange, but if one of them can't win, they want the other to win. And that's what the team wants. And they are team players and we've already seen that last year, right?
“I don't think it's unusual in any sport for team-mates to make sacrifices for each other to give the team what they want."
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