“I thought we might get where we are now by 2025”: McLaren boss Zak Brown ‘not complaining’ about team’s resurgence this season

Zak Brown opened up about McLaren's mighty resurgence coming into 2024. The Papayas have come from behind to challenge Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship. While Brown claimed that he believed his team would have reached this position somewhere around 2025, but is 'not complaining' that it has come before time.

McLaren's return to form has been the story of F1 in the last two seasons. The Papayas have come from P10 at some point in 2023, to now challenging Red Bull for the ultimate prize. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri fired on all cylinders, caught the defending champions off guard, and are now just 42 points behind in the Championship.

A race win, a P2, the fastest lap, along with Red Bull's failure are all they need to take the lead from here on. Even though expecting two things at once is quite hard, Zak Brown could not help but praise his team's efforts for their massive improvement. In an exclusive interview with BBC, he said:

"If I were to sit here and say I'm not surprised, that would be disingenuous. Red Bull had such an advantage over everyone and Mercedes has been so dominant."

"I felt like we'd continue to close the gap. Did I think we would be here at the summer break, one race away from getting the lead? I thought we might get where we are now by 2025. I didn't think we would be where we are now in 2024. But I'm not complaining," he added.

Besides McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari also trimmed their respective gaps to Red Bull, drastically. In 2023, Red Bull took 21 wins out of 22 races. Whereas this season, they failed to win a race for four successive races.

This is a surprising statistic considering the last time they faced this was back in 2020, when Mercedes dominated under the previous regulations. In a nutshell, Christian Horner's team risks losing the title if they do not make significant progress anytime soon.

---

Sergio Perez can make or break McLaren's chances according to Zak Brown

Sergio Perez of Red Bull Racing at F1 Grand Prix of Belgium - Source: Getty

Zak Brown put Sergio Perez at the forefront of their championship chances, as he believes that the Mexican would make all the difference between Red Bull and McLaren. He said, during the same exclusive with BBC,

"I think it's going to come down to the last race. There's not much between the cars. It's gonna come down to how does Sergio Perez perform?" Brown said.

"If he can perform as he's capable of performing, it's going to be a hard fight. If he continues to perform as he has this year, we have a pretty good chance, because we have two drivers constantly performing at the front."

Notably, at least one McLaren driver reached the podium in the last eight races. Whereas it was just Max Verstappen who has been the lone warrior for Christian Horner's team amid Perez's disastrous run of form.