F1 News
McLaren to take 'brave risks' with 2025 F1 car: 'Different mindset'
- Nicole Mulder
McLaren has no plans to slow down for the winter break. They are focused solely on keeping their momentum going for their 2025 season. Zak Brown plans to keep pushing and even plans to take some "brave risks" with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's 2025 cars.
McLaren to take risks with 2025 F1 car
McLaren had the fastest car during most of the 2024 season. However, the constructors' champions are willing to take some "brave risks" when designing next year's car. Brown says confidence has grown at the Woking-based team, and more than a few minor tweaks are being made.
"The team is not: 'Let's just tweak a little here and there. The car is pretty good.' We've got some stuff on next year's car that is like ‘brave risk’. I think you only get to the front if you try and beat everyone, as opposed to the mindset when we started this year, which was like, ‘Let’s just be as good as them.' The mind shift is now: ‘Let's beat everyone'," the American explained in a conversation with Motorsport.com.
Red Bull Racing's technical team, which was led by Adrian Newey until this year, also chose to go down a different path with the RB20 after their dominant 2023 F1 season compared to its highly successful predecessor, the RB19. However, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez struggled significantly more with the car in 2024 than the year before. Despite taking the risks, the team has not ever explicitly stated that the problems were due to the new concept.
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