“Lewis, the car is bad, we know. Please drive it.” Toto Wolff said this to Lewis Hamilton during the Austrian GP after the seven-time champion couldn’t stop complaining about the W14 being slow. No team likes hearing its car isn’t up to the mark, especially from its drivers. After spending a year playing catch up, Mercedes expected to build a car that could fight at the front this season. That hasn’t happened, even after the optimism at the end of 2022. Unlike Mercedes, instead of setting Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri up for disappointment, McLaren CEO Zak Brown opted for a different tactic.

Mclaren has made one of the biggest turnarounds Formula 1 has ever seen. Its MCL60 at the start of the season was nowhere, fighting amongst the backmarkers. But now, owing to a significant upgrade overhaul introduced in Austria, the Woking outfit is right up there fighting for the best-of-the-rest spot. With McLaren reaping the benefits of the work it’s put in over the past few months, Brown revealed how he softened the blow of the MCL60’s shocking pace at the start of 2023.

Zak Brown made the smart move in pre-season

Before an F1 season starts, one of the most anticipated events is all the teams’ car launches, where they introduce their challenger for the season. Having worked on those cars for the better part of half a season, teams usually know where their cars would stack up once the season gets underway. Although people were expecting big things from McLaren—considering its legacy—Zak Brown & Co. put the MCL60’s performance into perspective, revealing that it’s not where they would’ve wanted it to be.

When the season started, it became clear that Brown didn’t downplay McLaren’s performance and that the car was as bad as they thought. Norris and Piastri could score points in only three of the first eight races. In an interview with Motorsport.com, Brown was asked his reasons for downplaying the MCL60. He said, “It would have been pointless to talk up the launch, knowing what we were going to see 30 days later, so we were just transparent because our data said we were not where we need to be.”

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The ninth race was in Austria, where McLaren introduced the upgrades. Brown continued, “We knew changes were in the works, and then data was telling us things were going to start looking up in Austria and Silverstone, and they have.” Considering Brown already painted a picture of how things would be at the start of 2023, you would’ve thought Norris wouldn’t have been too hard on his team. Unfortunately (or fortunately), that wasn’t the case.

Norris’ criticism motivated Zak Brown & McLaren to do better

Saying Norris’ season got off to a slow start would be an understatement. This wouldn’t have been how he imagined his fifth season in F1 to commence. Especially considering McLaren promised him a race-winning car back when he joined in 2019. McLaren’s progress obviously disappointed the young Brit, even though Brown set the scene for him and expressed his criticism more often than not. He often said how terrible the car was to drive, and even after the upgrades, it’s still as difficult to handle.

When Brown was asked if the criticism demotivated the personnel in Woking, he said, “We kind of get happy together. We get grumpy together. So, if he’s made a comment, it’s consistent, it’s motivating. We don’t get down, we fight hard. I mean, if you look at how poor start the season was, that was hard. And the team handled it really well, so we’re motivated.” Now that the team has an in-house wind tunnel and has made significant facility improvements at the McLaren Technology Centre, Brown & Co. hopes to build on McLaren’s newfound momentum to bring it back to the front.

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What is your impression of the work Zak Brown and McLaren have put in to give Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri a more competitive car?