Brawn praises McLaren but believes Honda's win will make them "pause for thought"
F1 News
Ross Brawn has praised McLaren for their run of results so far this season but expects that they would have "paused for thought" after seeing their old engine supplier win the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend. McLaren have however improved massively on last season performance and have established themselves as the fastest midfield team.
The Formula 1 Managing Director believes that McLaren are making good progress but will see Hondas win as a missed opportunity.
"Certainly the fact that on Sunday Honda won as an engine manufacturer for the first time in almost 13 years, might have given them pause for thought," Brawn said to Motorsport Week when discussing McLaren. "But they can only be pleased about being 20 points ahead of Renault, their own engine supplier’s official team."
"The team can be very pleased with its driver pairing, with Lando Norris definitely the most impressive of the three rookies in the field, with four points finishes and several strong showings in qualifying to his name.
"Carlos Sainz has also proven his worth and last Sunday’s race was probably his best, especially in the light of the fact that, in the race of no retirements, he started from the back row and finished eighth.
"McLaren has scored 52 points in this year’s nine races, which is only ten fewer than it managed in all of 2018 and 22 more than it scored in 2017, which is further evidence of the progress made."
McLaren have been very impressive so far and the challenge now will be to hold onto their 4th position and try to challenge for podiums.