McLaren is one of the teams that didn’t quite live up to their potential this year. Things haven’t gone according to plan for them this season in terms of points and performance. And on top of that, they found themselves in an ugly contract dispute with Alpine and Oscar Piastri. Moreover, the contract situation with Daniel Ricciardo didn’t help their cause either.
In the wake of the drama that had unfolded, Zak Brown has now shared his thoughts about the current FIA super-license rules.
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As we know, Red Bull were looking to sign Colton Herta for their sister team, AlphaTauri, to make way for Pierre Gasly’s move to Alpine. However, The FIA announced that it won’t make any exceptions for the American IndyCar driver Colton as he only had 32 of the desired 40 points required for a super license.
Zak Brown said, “I think the whole licensing system needs to be reviewed.”
“If someone like Colton who’s won a lot of IndyCar races isn’t eligible for a super license then I think we need to review the super license system.”
He concluded, “I don’t think Max Verstappen would have been eligible for a super license, I don’t think Kimi Raikkonen would have been eligible for a super license.”
“So, if you go back and look, there are a couple of guys, world champions, who wouldn’t have got their super license in today’s environment.”
Despite all that, Colton Herta can test an F1 car in Free Practice at the coming races as McLaren still needs to fulfill their obligations to put a rookie in the seat for two FP sessions.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown takes a brutal dig at Alpine boss amidst the Oscar Piastri fiasco
Zak Brown was not mincing his words as he fired some brutal shots at rivals Alpine. The contract dispute involving McLaren, Alpine, and Oscar Piastri turned grotesque and had to be reviewed by the Contract Recognition Board.
We have signed 2021 F2 champion @OscarPiastri.
Oscar joins Lando to form our exciting F1 driver line-up from 2023. 👊
Full story. ⬇️
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) September 2, 2022
Speaking to NBC, Zak said, “It was very noisy”, in contrast to his team opting not to ‘comment on anything’.”
Brown further added, “If you look at all of the comments by Otmar [Szafnauer] he was giving a little play-by-play of the CRB and how confident they were, and now I think he looks a little silly.”
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“That’s why it’s best to keep your mouth shut, and we can talk about it after the fact when there’s something concrete to say.”
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Since they finished 4th in last year’s championship, many expected the Woking-based outfit to challenge the top 3 this year. Instead, they now find themselves 18 points behind Alpine in P4.
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After enduring a torrid season, McLaren will be itching for this calendar year to end. After signing Piastri, the British constructors have an exciting drivers lineup for next season. Zak Brown and his team will be hoping that they can get back to challenging the top 3 again.
Can Piastri and Lando Norris lead McLaren’s comeback to the top?