Zak Brown: “Our desires are to mix with the top four teams.”

After Carlos Sainz’s penalty for not respecting track limits during the Austrian Grand Prix, Lando Norris inherited 4th place, whereas he had crossed the finish line in 5th position. An excellent performance that confirmed the improvements made on the McLaren in Austria. At home, the British team will have to confirm: Oscar Piastri will also be equipped with these upgrades.

But after a 2022 season and a start to 2023 that fell short of expectations, McLaren is getting back on track in the most beautiful way possible. « I think Austria was a good validation – we thought we would be strong enough. Now we need to make sure that this continues in the other races and it’s not specific to one track », said Zak Brown.

McLaren aims high

For a renowned team like McLaren, fighting in the midfield is clearly not the desired situation. With the developments in the past few races, the Woking-based team and its boss have big ambitions. « “Our hopes, I wouldn’t want to predict where we will be, our desires are to mix it up with the top four teams like we did in Austria,” said the director of McLaren Racing. But Zak Brown remains realistic: « “It is clear that there is a significant points gap with the top four teams, so it’s difficult to know if we will be able to catch up with them.” »

A battle with Alpine is looming, and it will be necessary to beat the French team to reach the set goals. « I think that the battle with Alpine and others for fifth place is very intense, but I hope that we will continue on this momentum and have other weekends like in Austria », said Brown, before adding that there is still « a lot of things to develop. »

Zak Brown happy with Stella and the progress since the beginning of 2023

With the departure of Andreas Seidl from the position of McLaren Team Principal, the team had to find a replacement capable of leading the Woking team as high as possible. With Andrea Stella as Team Principal since the beginning of the season, things seem to be well organized. « I am very satisfied with everything I see from Andrea and the racing team. We knew we wouldn’t be very strong at the beginning of the year, we were not surprised by that. So we knew that was the case and Andrea quickly made changes » praised Zak Brown.

« When we look at our development curve since he restructured, moved people, brought in new ones – some started, others didn’t – the development rate has been much better than last year,” McLaren Racing Director concluded on the role of Andrea Stella. A winning bet to have appointed the Italian as Team Principal.

McLaren will have to urgently confirm its updates and its good performance this weekend. At Silverstone, this will not be an easy task.