McLaren CEO Zak Brown says he wants “a punch in the nose” to people who suggest the team has already won the 2024 Formula 1 constructors' title.
The Woking-based team are on course to end a constructors' championship drought dating back to 1998, as they sit 36 points ahead of Ferrari with three rounds remaining.
McLaren managed to stem Ferrari's recent comeback at the previous round in Brazil, despite sixth and eighth place finishes from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. And in Las Vegas, Mercedes F1 seems able to deprive the Scuderia of the biggest points.
But while the points advantage rests with McLaren, Brown warned the team cannot become complacent as they strive to edge out Ferrari and Red Bull for the crown.
“I feel good where we are. It's very stressful because we did it, we are in a position to win a title. I've never been in this situation. We haven't been in this case there since 1998 for the manufacturers' title.”
“But 36 points lead can evaporate in one race weekend and Ferrari could easily finish first or second, anything can happen in a street race like we saw in Brazil.”
“So for those who came to me with the obvious conclusion that we had already won the championship, I want to punch them in the nose. You can say that for Max Verstappen because he is a hair's breadth away from the title. But not us.”
“I think a lot of people have asked what are we doing differently now and we don’t want to do anything differently.”
“We want to do exactly what got us to where we are. Take things one race at a time, with our feet on the ground, and I think we've seen that since the beginning of the year.”
“Max won five or six races in a row, myself and I think almost everyone else said, 'Oh, this championship is over,' and here we are.”
“I think it shows how quickly things can change. So I think the moment you think you've achieved something before you've converted it is a big mistake to make.”
“So I'm happy with where we are right now, but we're very focused and we're not going to celebrate until we hopefully earn the right to celebrate.”
McLaren's current prospects stand in stark contrast to the team Brown arrived at in 2016, when it languished in mid-table with a minimal number of sponsors on board.
The American said the entire group deserved credit for contributing to the turnaround that took McLaren from bottom to top in 18 months.
When asked what he thought of McLaren's progress, Brown replied: “It's very stressful. I'm very happy with the current situation at McLaren.”
“The men and women of McLaren have done a fantastic job in all aspects of the racing team, haven’t they?”
“I will just say that we have developed a very good race car, like Laura who runs our finance department and also makes it possible to have all that.
“With the cost cap, you have to spend very efficiently and we have a great return on investment on how we deploy our resources.”
“Daniel Gallo is head of human resources. We have a fantastic culture. We take care of our employees. We take care of our employees' families. We spend a lot of energy.”
“This is the first time we have competed in 24 races. It is difficult not only for the racing team, but it is easy to forget. It is actually more difficult for the family, the partners, the children who stay at home missing their mother, their father who travel around the world, and even if you don't travel, there is a factory, you work seven days a week, you work very, very long hours.”
“So our commercial departments, which are our brands and we manage our partnerships, creating new partnerships, are also essential.”
“We have over 100 partners for our race car, more than any other racing team in the world.”
“We have an incredible fan base, our communications team and every department, if you will, emphasizes the performance of our race car because you know you don't have good aerodynamics if you don't don't have a good wind tunnel, you don't have a good wind tunnel if you don't have great sales department partners that keep you moving forward in the wind tunnel, etc.”
