Can McLaren F1 clinch both world titles this year?
Zak Brown, the CEO, believes it but he also remains with both feet on the ground: the MCL38 can stay at the head of the constructors’ championship and perhaps allow Lando Norris to catch up with Max Verstappen.
But to get there, you will have to be impeccable during the last 6 races, including three Sprints.
“We have to focus on one race at a time,” it Brown.
“Every time I talk to Andrea Stella about how we are going to behave on a circuit, he doesn’t say to me, or at least not yet, ‘We’re going to win this race’.”
“He’s pretty conservative, down to earth, just to keep us pushing. At the start of the year, I definitely thought Max was going to win all 24 races.”
“Now he hasn’t won in eight races, so we know how quickly things can change in six or seven races, there’s a lot to do, so we have to make sure we don’t get too comfortable. “
The McLaren MCL38 has proven strong on all circuit types, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri winning at Miami, Hungary, Zandvoort, Azerbaijan and Singapore.
Norris’ dominance, particularly in Singapore, took a toll on Red Bull. So is there really anything to worry about for McLaren?
“No race in particular worries us, other than the fact that we usually worry before each race weekend about doing well with the nice machine we have. I think that keeps us on our toes.”
“There are tracks that we think we are better at than others, but none that we think we are not strong at now that we have won on all types of circuits.”
“We are quite confident with our car but we always have to get the most out of it. Humans are very important in this story, the drivers and the team. It’s good to remind them of that from time to time.”
