Despite F1 Team at Rock Bottom, Zak Brown Continues His Expansion Spree as McLaren Onboards Le Mans Winner: “A Long History Of..”

Remember when McLaren signed Lewis Hamilton in 2007? The Briton almost won the championship in his rookie year. McLaren has been falling down the creek since Hamilton left and has hit the rock bottom now. In a desperate attempt to save the ship, a new expansion plan has been put in place by Zak Brown. A former Le Mans winner will be spearheading the program. Will it get McLaren back to winning ways? What is this program?

From being the 4th fastest car last season during the first half to being amongst the slowest cars this season. McLaren had the worst start of any team in 2023. Zak Brown announced a restructuring and has been on a sponsor signing spree since the season started. McLaren has signed multiple young talented IndyCar drivers like Pato O’ Ward and Alex Palou as a pool for its F1, IndyCar, and Formula-E teams over the last year. 

As a final step towards supporting emerging talent, McLaren has appointed 5x Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro as head of the new McLaren driver’s development program. McLaren has a long history of bringing forward emerging talents and giving them a chance. The most notable examples are Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. McLaren will continue supporting young talent long into the future. Zak Brown explains how Emanuele Pirro will spearhead the program to develop raw young talent into polished professional racing drivers. 

According to speedcafe.com, Zak Brown said “McLaren has a long history of developing emerging talent into top-level racing drivers and I’m proud that it will continue long into the future. We have an experienced team here at McLaren, who will be ably led by Emanuele, that are capable of providing the support and resources required to develop raw young talent into highly competitive professional racing drivers.”

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The directions taken by McLaren look great for a successful future. The new wind tunnel is also coming online by the end of this year. However, Aston Martin’s ambassador called Zak Brown’s attempt at the technical restructure pointless and suggested the area where the problem actually lies.

Pedro de la Rosa reveals Zak Brown and Co.’s biggest weakness

McLaren has been using Toyota’s wind tunnel based in Germany for the past 10 years. Not having an in-house wind tunnel is very costly and inefficient as days are lost in transportation on equipment. Pedro de la Rosa revealed how the tools and the wind tunnel are McLaren’s biggest weaknesses. If a team wants to fight at the top, it must have its own equipment else it won’t be able to keep the development pace.

According to the F1 Nation Podcast, Pedro de la Rosa said, “The biggest issue I would say is the tools, the wind tunnel. You know they have been working on the wind tunnel of Toyota for more than 10 years. This is something that if you are fighting against the top guys, they have their own tools, you need to have your own tools. Otherwise, you cannot keep the development pace”

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What do you make of this program being spearheaded by Emanuele Pirro?