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Despite Just 14 Points So Far, Zak Brown Justifies the Revamp at McLaren With More Future Improvement Promises: “Realized That We Weren’t..”

Published 05/13/2023, 6:30 AM EDT

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A lot of thought goes into structuring a company that occasionally achieves lofty goals and, at times, puts you in danger, like McLaren. Despite restructuring the organization when Andrea Stella assumed leadership of McLaren, the team is still facing troubles as they have only scored 14 points so far this year. Despite this, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has offered some hope to the fans by defending changes to the organization.

Andrea Seidl’s departure from McLaren to join Sauber during the previous winter resulted in Stella’s appointment as team leader. After years of consistent success, the team’s flaws became apparent, and as time went on, the Woking-based outfit’s poor performance came under more scrutiny. As a result, the team decided to form a technical executive team and dismiss James Key.

The structuring was then distributed among three subject-matter specialists. David Sanchez was tasked with creating the car’s concept. Peter Prodromou was in charge of aerodynamics, while Neil Houldey was in command of engineering and design. Justifying the modification Zak Brown, who has already claimed the squad has fallen short of some developmental goals earlier this year, promised additional future improvements.

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Applauding Stella’s skill, Brown opens the interview. He said, as reported by Motorsport Total, “We have streamlined the organization and clearly assigned roles. At the end of last year, in the second half of the year, I was not happy with the progress we were making. So when I got the opportunity to use Andrea Stella as team principal, who is very technical, I was very happy. The first thing I asked him to do was look at why we weren’t developing as fast as I thought we should.” 

Later, Brown disclosed what the Italian Engineer discovered, “ He realized that we weren’t structurally optimal so we set about figuring out what the optimal structure would be like and then the org chart was created and we wanted to make some changes to optimize the new structure.”

In the battle for midfield position last year, McLaren fell short of Alpine. The team, however, is tied with its competitors this year at just 14 points. Even though they are still inconsistent, Alpine has already demonstrated that they can keep up with the tempo. So does that imply that this year’s midfield battles will be similar to last year’s? If so, each side will undoubtedly need to make some upgrades. And It appears that Andrea Stella has something to share with McLaren fans.

Andrea Stella updates McLaren’s fans about the MCL60’s modifications

The management of McLaren indicated prior to Baku that the team will bring some significant changes to Azerbaijan, which they achieved by bringing their flooring. Fans were thrilled that the Woking-based team could channel the same or even greater performance at Miami despite the team’s disappointing campaign thus far. However, the squad failed to perform that way and went through a nightmare when it was scrapping with AlphaTauri and Williams in the back of the field.

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However, amid recent difficulties, McLaren has discovered a new adage, “Keep faith.” And by moving in that direction, Stella gives a glimmer of hope to the papaya Army’s fans that the team might reclaim some performance. As per Motorsports Italy, he said, “The next sizeable pack of updates will arrive before the summer break. We are planning to spread the updates between the Canadian Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix.” 

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Having the foresight to avoid bringing improvements to the race where the Sprint race is scheduled to take place, Stella added, “We will certainly avoid bringing news to Austria, because that will be a weekend of Sprint Shootout and Sprint Race. And given the amount of updates we will bring, we are not confident in bringing them to an event that will be very similar to the one in Baku.”

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WATCH THIS STORY: Will Lando Norris Switch Teams From the Miserable McLaren – What are his Options?

Do you believe that the team can make some significant changes in order to maintain the midfield duel with Alpine?

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Written by:

Aditya Srivastava

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Aditya Srivastava is an F1 writer at EssentiallySports with over two years of writing experience. He developed a keen interest in the sport after the unforgettable Abu Dhabi 2021 race. As a graduate of a premier institute, Aditya is committed to producing high-quality content that is engaging, informative, and accurate.
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Edited by:

Varunkumaar Chelladurai