Zak Brown explains why McLaren's Miami upgrades are "risky"

Zak Brown has discussed the upgrades McLaren are bringing ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. Despite the weekend featuring another sprint race and being a street circuit, Brown said everyone is still looking forward to the upgrades and the risks McLaren are taking.

What upgrades are McLaren bringing?

McLaren are planning to not only improve the peformance of the car, but also improve how the car takes care of the tyres, in attempt to improve tyre degradation. 

When asked whether everyone is looking forward to the upgrades which both the team, and driver Lando Norris have briefly discussed, Brown said: "We are. Always a little element of being nervous because the data tells you one thing and you hope it correlates with the race track. Great news is our last handful of upgrades have done exactly what we thought they would, so there's no reason to believe these upgrades won't have that same impact." 

"You don't really have time to make any adjustments"

Under the new sprint format for 2024, teams will only have one practice session this weekend at the Miami Grand Prix. Despite being excited about the weekend, Brown commented on the challenges a sprint weekend can bring when testing the new upgrades. "Difficult weekend with it being a sprint. That's kind of not the most ideal way to roll out upgrades because you do want to kind of get some back to back comparisons, or if you have an issue, you don't have really time to make any adjustments," Brown said on the Drive to Wynn podcast

The upcoming sprint race will also differ to China's, given it is on a street circuit. However, Brown does not seem concerned by any of the challenges ahead of this weekend. "You've got to take risks in this business, calculated risks, and we're ready. So we're going to bring out the new bits and see what extra lap time we can put on the car." 

McLaren are currently third in the Constructor standings, behind Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. Their drivers both sit within the top ten within the Driver's Championship, with Lando Norris in fifth, and Oscar Piastri in sixth.