F1 News
Brown has bad news for Red Bull: 'This is a category B track for McLaren'
The rise of McLaren since the 2023 British Grand Prix has been huge. Upgrades were brought to Silverstone last year after a slow start to 2023, and since then, McLaren have been consistently fighting for podiums at every race. However, in 2024, they have gone one better, and Lando Nrris' pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix highlights the challenge the British team are bringing to the rest of the grid. But despite Norris taking pole, team boss Zak Brown believes this isn't the best track for McLaren this season.
Upgrades brought to the Miami Grand Prix showed that the papaya-coloured team had the ability to race at the front and take victories, something they hadn't seen since the Italian Grand Prix in 2021. But after Norris drove away from Max Verstappen and to victory, there was the belief that they have the chance to fight Red Bull and Ferrari for the Constructors' Championship.
That belief was on show again at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as Norris pipped Verstappen to pole by +0.020s, giving the Brit just the second pole position of his career. But despite being able to out-pace the RB20 of Verstappen, Brown says there are still other tracks which favour the McLaren more.
Brown says Norris' pole is 'very encouraging'
"We typically like the fast tracks," said the McLaren CEO, speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying on Saturday. "If you went down the list and picked category A and category B circuits for the season, this would be a little bit more in the category B area. So it's obviously very encouraging."
McLaren also missed out on chances to win at Imola and Canada with Norris, but despite that, Brown knows that the team are constantly improving and that wins may be coming to the team soon: "All the men and women at McLaren have just done a fantastic job back at the factory, back here at the racetrack. We have a really good race car now that we hope to continue to improve on."