McLaren was able to cut down Red Bull’s lead in the constructor’s championship to just 42 points before the summer break, and they did so quite quickly. However, McLaren Racing’s CEO Zak Brown is expecting the fight for the constructors’ title to go down to the wire despite there being plenty of races (10) left in the season.
Brown believes that there is not much difference between the performance levels of the MCL38 and the RB20, which is why he thinks that the championship will be decided by the efforts of the drivers. During a recent conversation on the ‘F1: Chequered Flag’ podcast, he noted how Sergio Perez will play a crucial role in deciding whether Red Bull will be able to defend their constructors’ title or not. The 52-year-old stated,
“I think it’s going to be tough… There’s not much between the cars. I think it’s going to come down to how Sergio Perez performs. If he can perform in a way that he’s capable of performing, it’s gonna be a hard fight. If he continues to perform as he’s performed this year, I think we have a pretty good chance because we have two drivers that are constantly performing at the front.”
Brown also looked back at the start of the 2022 season when there was not much of a performance gap between the Mexican and his teammate Max Verstappen, which is what makes him think that the 34-year-old has the potential to come back to form at any time.
However, McLaren too hasn’t been entirely error-free and they surely will need to sort out their issues if they want to win the championship.
Brown promises to not keep making the same mistakes
The American was also reminded of how Lando Norris had made some small but critical mistakes throughout the season, especially at the start of the races, that have cost the team the opportunity to win multiple races. But when asked if he was concerned about those mistakes, Brown said that he was not as he still believes that the team has a lot to learn.
“I am not concerned. I think you’re right, we have made a variety of errors, which to me are learning experiences,” Brown noted. “It’s one thing to have fast cars, fast pit stops, fast racing drivers, but you got to execute everywhere.”
Dear McLaren fans,
Our CEO, Zak Brown, talks performance-led culture, Lando and Oscar’s first wins, and our aims for the final 10 races.
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 22, 2024
He believes that the team got to the front of the grid much quicker than they had anticipated and that’s why there are still a lot of things to learn for the team as well as the drivers. But Brown remains confident that they won’t make the same mistakes twice.
