McLaren CEO Zak Brown has warned the team won’t have everything “fully maximised” in time for the 2024 Formula 1 season, adding it needs “a bit more time”.
The Woking-based squad endured a torrid beginning to the 2023 campaign, having admitted it had missed development targets over the winter period with its MCL60 car.
But after struggling to avoid Q1 eliminations early on, the introduction of a substantial upgrade package in Austria in July elevated McLaren into front-running contention.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri combined to amass nine podiums in total – with the latter landing a breakthrough win in the Qatar Sprint race – to inspire the team to fourth.
Having been Red Bull’s most regular challenger in the second half of the season, McLaren has been tipped as one of the sides that could mount a title charge next season.
McLaren’s bid to challenge at the top in 2024 will be bolstered by the team’s state-of-the-art wind tunnel facility and the addition of two marquee technical arrivals in January.
The British outfit secured the return of David Sanchez (Car Concept & Performance) from Ferrari, while Rob Marshall (Engineering & Design) has traded Red Bull for McLaren.
However, with those two not set to start work at Woking until January, Brown has cautioned that McLaren won’t be exploiting its full potential from the outset next season.
“We have everything we need, but we need a little bit more time,” Brown said.
“The upgrades were not done with some of our latest technology, and we’re now in our wind tunnel, we have our new simulator, our new manufacturing unit, so that is quite exciting for us because we haven’t benefited from those [before].
“We’ve got great people back at McLaren but we do have a couple of big hires that start in early January but of course, our 2024 has already been started.
“We will have everything in place come January but 2024 has already started, so I think it will be 2025 before we’ve fully maximised everything, but I feel good about the ’24 season.
“It’s been an awesome effort by Andrea and the entire team. The upgrades have been fantastic.
“The drivers are doing a great job, we’ve got great power coming out of our Mercedes power unit, so it’s been a wild ride.”
Meanwhile, Brown recently lauded McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella for pioneering the side’s remarkable revival into a genuine recognised threat once again in F1.
“Andrea has done a fantastic job – he’s a tremendous leader,” Brown added.
“He’s a great communicator, he empowers the team, he listens, he gives great direction – I can’t say enough great things about him.”
“The proof is in the pudding [in terms of results]. Look at what he inherited at the start of the year, which was kind of the ninth-quickest car.
“We’ve been in the second half of the year kind of the second, third-quickest car, [scoring] a pole, lots of podiums, so it’s credit to Andrea and everyone in the racing team. It’s a team effort, which is great to see.”
