Zak Brown Shoots Down Lando Norris & Oscar Piastri’s “Miracle” Hopes as Reality Sinks In After Unexpected Points Finish

“Luck wasn’t on our side, just ‘unluck’ wasn’t on our side,” said an unimpressed Lando Norris after McLaren saw an unexpected double-point haul at the Australian GP. With the way bad luck has been panning out for MCL60, nobody saw that the team will gather points so early on in the year. However, the driver duo stayed out of trouble and brought home points that they thought were only possible post-Baku upgrades. However, the Mclaren CEO has been quick to rain on their happy parade.

Even though McLaren has a 2023 challenger, it is apparently only just their last year’s as their real challenger is set to debut at Azerbaijan GP, making it the first step of their three-step plan for the 2023 campaign. And while the world awaits a blazing cruising orange car for their favorite drivers, Norris and Oscar Piastri. Zak has said nothing will change overnight. In F1 Nation’s podcast, when asked about the Baku upgrades and how that was shaping up, he did not give a very hopeful reply.

Zak Brown stated, “We obviously need to fix our straight-line deficit and create some more downforce. But that’s kind of stating the obvious. Baku, I think, is a circuit where the upgrades probably won’t show as much as they maybe will in probably at other circuits.” He also added, “I am sure it won’t be a miracle overnight, but it should be a step forward.”

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The expectations the team sets should be pragmatic. However, there is no denying the fact that the talents of the Papaya lineup brought home some valuable points and the team should deliver them the machinery they deserve.

“We deserved it,” says Lando Norris post the eventful Albert Park point haul

While Lando wasn’t very pleased as he obviously knows what he deserves, the man didn’t want to discount the efforts. He even went ahead to say that he felt quicker and the pace was closer to the likes of Haas and AlphaTauri.

Speaking post-race, Norris said, “I felt a little bit quicker, so I could race against them, I could actually have some fun, attack and have a bit of racing action, so [it was] a good day. P6, some reasonable points for us, same for Oscar to have him in the points at the same time. We just stayed out of trouble, which was the biggest challenge today, which was avoiding the people locking up and causing chaos, so I’m happy; the team’s done a good job, and we deserved it.”

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Do you think the McLaren boys can fight for podiums and wins after their rendezvous with the upgrades at the next GP?