Nottingham [UK], July 14 : McLaren team boss Zak Brown could not hide his smile after a much-improved display throughout the British Grand Prix weekend landed the squad’s first podium finish of the 2023 campaign. In a recent interview, he said, "We're back in the game."
Following a restructure that saw James Key leave as Technical Director and new team boss Andrea Stella implement his own strategy, all eyes turned to a major upgrade package McLaren had planned for Austria.
At Silverstone, where both McLarens had the developments at their disposal, paving the way for Norris and Oscar Piastri to qualify a high-flying second and third, and finish second and fourth, the latter losing a spot under the late Safety Car.
According to the official website of Formula 1, Zak Brown said, "I think it’s a little early to be that bold. I think what we are now is we’re back in the game. Given how we started the year in Bahrain and Saudi, where we were nowhere, to be on the podium, to lead the race and be there on pure pace."
Brown added that he feels championship leader Max Verstappen is “getting less further ahead” as the season develops and looks forward to more “fantastic racing” in the events to come.
“I think this shows just how healthy the sport is, how great the competition is, that we’re now coming into each weekend and there’s someone at the front you weren’t expecting, someone at the back you weren’t expecting,” he commented.
Zak Brown said, “I’m sure tracks will suit different cars in different ways, plus everyone’s continuing to bring upgrades, so you can see when you put a lot of great, hard work in and it works, the leap forward you can take. As far as we know, someone else might do that the next race, so we’ve got to keep pushing.”
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor