“We have a great history with Mercedes” – McLaren CEO Zak Brown has expressed excitement to switch from Renault to Mercedes, a reunion after 7 years.
The McLaren-Mercedes partnership is one of the most successful in Formula 1 history. The partnership yielded 78 wins, 3 drivers, and a constructor’s title in a space of two decades. Mika Hakkinen and more famously Lewis Hamilton won driver titles in this partnership. Naturally, after experimenting with Honda and Renault, McLaren CEO is excited about the famed Mercedes reunion.
“We’re very excited. Obviously, we have a great history with Mercedes. Ola Källenius, now the CEO of Daimler, is a big McLaren fan and was with McLaren in those days. We have a lot of friends and family at Brixworth [Mercedes High-Performance Powertrains] and I think they seem to be equally as excited.
“So we are very excited that we will be able to win races together in the future and hopefully challenge whoever is at the front, which will most likely be the Mercedes Grand Prix team.”
If the Mercedes engine gives McLaren the power boost expected, could they cause Red Bull more problems than expected in 2021 or even win a race? #F1 #McLaren https://t.co/VNR9pedJey
— KieranTLR (@KieranTlr) February 5, 2021
McLaren last won a race with Mercedes partnership
McLaren last won in F1 with the former champion Jenson Button taking victory in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix. That car was powered by Mercedes; McLaren never won with Honda and Renault.
The British team performed impressively last season to finish P3 though and would be looking to challenge Red Bull and Aston Martin for P2 this season. In preparation for that, McLaren successfully launched its MCL35M in its factory last month.
