McLaren CEO Explains Their F1 Struggles

When seen at face value, the McLaren’s team current F1 season seems decent. They lie in fifth place in the constructors’ with 40 points, snapping at the heels of Renault, who are in fourth.

But a closer look reveals the true picture. The Woking-based team have had no upgrades whatsoever and even Alonso admitted that it was an issue.

As a result, they have struggled for the past three race weekends, with their lowest point coming at France, where they could not go past Q1.

McLaren CEO, Zak Brown has finally explained the technical issue with which the team has been lagging back. “We have identified the aerodynamics as the area where we have problems”, said Brown.

“It’s something that doesn’t show up in the wind tunnel, therefore we can’t try and solve it in the wind tunnel because we can’t replicate the issue in the tunnel. So we try and fix the issue on the race track.”

He further revealed that McLaren are using F1 tracks to just understand the balance and different set-ups. “With no testing or very limited testing, you will see we were running different configuration wings and different floors on Friday”, he said.

“Unfortunately we are having to test and experiment at the race track. So while most other teams are on their development path and base programme is working for them, we are having to identify and work to solve these issues.”

“We had some different aerodynamic devices we had last year that we don’t have this year and we’re having to sort these out at the race track”, added Brown.

He was quick to point out that the team was having a relatively better season as compared to the last but their expectation has not been met yet. “We are having a difficult time racing and I think we all had higher expectations for how we would be performing”, conceded Brown.

“That being said, we are fifth in the championship, last year we were ninth. So we are having a better season, but not matching the expectations when you have two world-class drivers and a team like McLaren.”

Brown’s admission of the problem is an answer to people who were wondering what the issue was though he did not provide a clear picture. It seems an amateur one at best and indicates at the team not having a proper vision for their F1 future.