Zach Brown: While we’re a step behind

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, McLaren Racing boss Zack Brown acknowledged that while the team is far from the target, he expects serious progress over the course of the season…

Zach Brown: “Before the start of the season it is difficult to judge our competitiveness. We know we missed some of the goals we set out to achieve, and we thought it best to acknowledge that. We, like everyone else, still have a lot to do, but we are optimistic about the future. Obviously next week we won’t be as fast as we would like. It is difficult to say where we will be on the starting field. As long as we’re one step behind.

Yesterday was not without “teething problems”. In the morning, Oscar worked with the settings, which was not easy. Nothing alarming, the usual difficulties with the tests. Today Lando focused on long sets of circles. We’re trying to understand the new car, there’s still a day and a half of testing ahead of us and over the weekend we’re going to look for the settings for the race.

Last year, due to problems with the brakes during testing, we had to stop developing other nodes and focus all our efforts on finding a solution quickly. Then we responded very well. We had about a week to solve the problem – and we did. Unfortunately, this had consequences for our results in the first half of the season. That is why it is extra important to perform these tests cleanly.

We want to be in the top four by the end of the year. Last season was a bit disappointing, but our main goal is to get back to the first line, and we know that this needs a little more time. Our entire technological infrastructure is already ready or will be ready this year. We have some good developments. But the same goes for other teams in Formula 1. So we have to pick up the pace.”