F1 News

Zak Brown confident for 2020 but warns of great competition

Zak Brown confident for 2020 but warns of "great competition"

13-02-2020 16:09

Zak Brown is confident for the 2020 season following the reveal of McLaren's new car for this year, but has warned that there is still strong competition from behind. McLaren finished a superb P4 in the constructors' standings in 2019 and are hoping to build on that, but Brown knows it's harder than it looks to stay on top in the midfield.

With Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz in the team, McLaren have a strong driver line up to charge towards the top three, but they will need a good car to do it in. 

Brown said after the new car was revealed: “We made a pretty good car last year that got stronger over the second part of the year. And [we] put that down to everybody, but a lot of leadership from Andreas and James. I think as the car got more competitive, it wasn’t a coincidence, it was when they started to get stuck into things.

“Now we’ve got our new race car, which is the first time we’ve kind of had everyone in place. And I think Andreas has brought a lot of clarity to how he wants to see the Formula 1 team run. That’s been very well received. It’s a nice environment to walk around the factory and the racetrack. It’s got a real team feeling.

“So I’m excited. That being said, the gap to third is still very big in Formula 1 terms. And so I think we have to be realistic that we hope to close that gap. The first thing we need to do is not go backwards and that in itself isn’t easy because we’ve got great competition in the midfield.”