McLaren CEO Zak Brown says McLaren is “prepared to go toe-to-toe” with Red Bull as it mounts a Formula 1 title challenge, but pledges the team won’t be “nasty” about it.
Following a string of car upgrades McLaren has closed the performance gap to Red Bull in recent weeks, having been the highest-scoring team over the past six races.
McLaren’s surge to the front has raised simmering tensions between Brown and his Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner, heightened by Norris’ race-ending collision with Verstappen in Austria.
Sergio Perez’s performance struggles in the second Red Bull have left the door open for McLaren to mount an unlikely title challenge and close a 78-point gap as the season hits the halfway mark.
And with both teams expected to be finely matched for the second half of the 2024 season, Brown pledges McLaren is ready to take the fight to Red Bull without crossing the boundaries.
“We’re prepared to go toe-to-toe,” Brown said. “Nasty is not how McLaren goes racing. I think you can go toe-to-toe, but you don’t have to be nasty about it.
“They seem to, at times, have a win-at-all-costs mentality. That’s not how we go racing, but we think you can go toe-to-toe and take the fight to them our own way.”
Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Lando Norris took his maiden win in Miami, but a number of strategy mistakes have prevented the Briton or team-mate Oscar Piastri from adding to that tally.
In Silverstone, McLaren left the door open for Lewis Hamilton to take Mercedes’ second win in a row, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen still wringing out three victories on weekends when he hasn’t necessarily had the quickest car.
When asked how McLaren has dealt with the added pressure and spotlights of fighting for wins rather than occasional podiums, Brown was adamant the “good stress” of fighting at the front hadn’t impacted the team’s pitwall.
“It’s exciting. It’s a good stress of going: ‘Don’t get this wrong because this is for a race win’, and when it’s a fourth or a fifth or an eighth it’s [different].
“But I think it’s enjoyable. I’m on pitwall and the tone of the team led by Andrea [Stella, team principal], by Randy [Singh, racing director]… you wouldn’t know if we’re racing for the win or we’re in 10th. I think that’s what you want to see.
“There’s nothing on pitwall like: ‘Oh my god, we’re in the lead’. It’s business as usual, so the team is definitely up for it.”
This iteration of McLaren is relatively new to racing for wins as a collective, but Brown maintains there is enough winning pedigree running through the Woking-based squad to iron out recent race execution errors.
“There’s a lot of race wins and championships inside McLaren, so while it’s a little bit newer to me, Andrea Stella’s been there, done that with one of the best drivers and best teams in the world, as a lot of people inside McLaren.
“We’re hungry for it and we’re very critical of ourselves. If we made a mistake, we talk about it offline, but we definitely do a very detailed post-race analysis. But there’s a lot of confidence in the team.”
Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 2nd position, pours Champagne over Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, at the McLaren celebration gathering
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Fighting for race wins is a new reality for its drivers, with Norris finding out the hard way in recent races that he has to be firing on all cylinders to defeat Verstappen.
“To win the Formula 1 world championship everyone needs to be at 100 percent,” Brown replied when asked by Motorsport.com/Autosport if there were still elements of his racecraft Norris should refine.
“Lando is learning every time out there, right? He’s got the benefit of one win. Max and Lewis and [Michael] Schumacher, when you’ve won as much as they’ve won, that gives you a lot of experience.
“Lando’s still getting that experience of winning grands prix, which I think is great, because the only way to get it is to get stuck in there and he’s just going to continue to improve as a driver.
“He’s perfectly capable of winning the world championship now, but that doesn’t mean he still can’t get better.
“I think Max is a better driver today than he was in year one or year two of his championships, so these drivers continuously refine their game.”