In 2022, F1 introduced radical changes to the car design to level the playing field. And many expected the season to be less exciting compared to the ones before. McLaren CEO (then-Team principal) Zak Brown thought it would be boring, to say the least. But with Max Verstappen rising to the challenge, his rivals were left in the dust. And Brown thanked him for making the races more exciting. But Brown now expects the Dutchman’s dominance to end soon.

In 2023, Red Bull continued their quest to rule the grid. And did so successfully. While Verstappen keeps securing consecutive Pole positions and victories, the competition for the other two spots on the podium keeps changing. It started with Aston Martin and Mercedes competing for it. Then came Ferrari, and now McLaren has leapfrogged all 3 to become 2nd fastest. And Brown believes that Verstappen has now been caught up.

Brown said, as quoted by Speedweek, “The performance of Max and Red Bull Racing commands our utmost respect. But every series comes to an end once, and Red Bull Racing is caught up. Of course, I hope we can do that. But the chasing field behind RBR is so densely staggered that another racing team could do the same.”

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Brown is definitely talking about his team when he says someone is bound to overthrow Max Verstappen from the top spot. And according to him, there is one person who deserves much more credit than he gets for the team’s turnaround.

Zak Brown Lauds McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella Exceptional Leadership

McLaren probably had the worst start to their 2023 season, compared to other seasons in the last decade. But at the Red Bull ring this year, the team scripted a comeback for the ages. They did what Mercedes and Ferrari weren’t able to do. Their big upgrade package got Lando Norris back-to-back podiums. And Brown credits such stellar results to new Team Principal Andrea Stella.

Talking about Stella, Zak Brown said to Sky Sports, as quoted by GPfans, “This guy is awesome. The way he inherited what we had at the start of the year, recognized the challenges that we had, put in a technical restructure, promoted people from within, because you know while we’ve made some bigger hires that are joining, they haven’t joined yet. So, this is still the work of all the men and women under Andrea’s leadership, and they put their head down.”

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McLaren is now the closest team to matching Verstappen’s lap times. But unfortunately for them, the next race at Hungaroring has its share of slow corners and per Norris, the MCL60 is not suited for such circuits. Can they still pull a blinder?