General
McLaren has big plans: 'Some exciting announcements coming up'
- GPblog.com
McLaren is having a disappointing 2023 so far. The MCL60 is not performing as they hoped, although the Woking-based racing stable knew when they presented their car that it would not be competitive enough. However, McLaren did not expect them to fall back so much. CEO Zak Brown promises that better times are ahead.
Goodbye was said to Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri was snatched from Alpine in his place. Together with Lando Norris, he forms a pair and they are particularly pleased with the duo at McLaren. With both drivers, the British team hopes to start challenging the top teams in the near future. That seems extremely far away at the moment, but should certainly be achievable.
"We’re in good shape from a driver standpoint," Brown said on the F1 Nation podcast. The American then goes on to name the things that should ensure McLaren make the step from midfield. "You need two great drivers – I think we have those. “You need your technology, infrastructure being state of the art and on par with the competition – we’ll have that done by the end of the year. We’ve talked a lot about the wind tunnel, simulator and manufacturing unit. These things are all very close to being done. Some of them are done."
McLaren wants to take steps forward
In terms of facilities, McLaren is thus moving forward. From 2024, the team could and should start reaping the benefits of this already. In terms of technology, Brown and team boss Andrea Stella's formation will then be completely up-to-date, so from then on there will be no more excuses. The reorganisation will be complete by then and, moreover, a number of new engineers also seem to be moving towards McLaren.
Brown hinted at this: "So we’ll have the technology, then it’s people and we have some exciting announcements coming up soon. We have a great team, but we need some additional thinking and some fresh ideas," he explained.