Zac Brown: I hope we do better than in Bahrain

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown hopes his team in Saudi Arabia can perform with more confidence and move a little closer to the leaders.

“We feel we are quite competitive and the team has been working on different programs during training,” he told Sky Sports. – I don’t think the round results can be considered representative and that the balance of power will become clear during qualifying.

So far the picture is about the same as in Bahrain, but we are still a little more competitive and a little closer to the leaders. We had the speed last weekend, but in qualifying we couldn’t coordinate everything. I hope we will do better now, because usually during training the riders follow certain programs, and when it comes time for qualifying and they only have one lap to show the desired result, they show it. It always amazes me, but they are still the best 20 riders in the world.

I can say that we have experimented with the ride height, but have not yet found the optimal settings. On these types of circuits it is difficult to overtake, so a lot depends on the results of qualifying, but on the other hand, on the city ring there is always a big risk that the appearance of the safety car will disrupt the race. This must be taken into account and when choosing the settings, preference should be given to a good race pace, rather than the speed of one fast lap.”

Brown also outlined the challenges facing McLaren this season: “We definitely want to achieve better results than last year, when our drivers were on the podium nine times and finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. Now we want to go up at least one line on all indicators.”