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Zak Brown’s Chopping & Changing Termed Pointless as McLaren’s “Biggest Issue” Revealed by Aston Martin Insider

Published 04/19/2023, 12:15 PM EDT

When things go bad, it’s easy to point fingers. Zak Brown explained that the idea of technical restructuring had been on his mind for a long time. However, the McLaren CEO pointed the blame on the personnel only when things went extremely south this season. However, an Aston Martin insider recently revealed that Zak Brown’s efforts are useless as the actual problem with McLaren lies elsewhere.

Zak Brown and Andrea Stella recently announced a restructuring of personnel at McLaren in light of the drop in performance. Zak Brown explained how he wasn’t satisfied with the pace of development during the second half of 2022. And that trend carried forward into 2023 as McLaren has been overtaken by key competitors, Alpine and Aston Martin. As part of the technical restructuring, James Key parted ways with the British team, and Ferrari’s former head of vehicle concept, David Sanchez, set to join later this year.

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Pedro de la Rosa suggests that McLaren’s attempt at restructuring is useless, as the personnel is not the problem. McLaren does not have their own wind tunnel and has been using Toyota’s wind tunnel for the past 10 years. The Aston Martin Ambassador clarified how the tools and the wind tunnel are McLaren’s biggest weaknesses. He explained how Mclaren needs to have their own tools if they wish to fight with the top dogs. Otherwise, they won’t be able to keep up with them.

According to the F1 Nation Podcast Pedro de la Rosa said, “Interesting thing about McLaren is that I don’t think they have a problem with the people. The biggest issue I would say is the tools, the wind tunnel. You know they have been working on the wind tunnel of Toyota, for now, more than 10 years. This is something that if you are fighting against the top guys, they have their own tools, you need to have your own tools. Otherwise, you cannot keep the development pace”

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McLaren’s new wind tunnel is in development and is expected to come online by the end of this year. The never-ending sponsor list and the boost from the wind tunnel can reap fruitful rewards for McLaren next season. However, Pedro de la Rosa praised Aston Martin’s jump up the grid despite the fact that the Silverstone-based team is using other’s tools.

Pedro de la Rosa praises Aston Martin’s development despite using old tools.

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Lawrence Stroll has invested heavily in infrastructure and tools for his Aston Martin team. However, the factory and the new wind tunnel are yet to come online. The performance we are seeing right now was developed on the old premises. Aston Martin uses Mercedes’ wind tunnel and buys most of the rear-end parts from them. It’s impressive what Mike Krack and his team have done and one can only expect them to move forward when the new facilities come online.

According to the F1 Nation podcast, Pedro de la Rosa said, “But also I think that what is most extraordinary is Tom, is the fact that we are achieving all these results without using the new facility. This is something that people really don’t know. They think that Aston Martin’s performance is related to the new tools that the team has, but actually, those tools are still yet to be used. So that is encouraging.”

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Watch this story: How Aston Martin F1 Turned Around From a Struggling Mid-Field Team to Being the 2nd Fastest in 2023

Do you think Zak Brown’s plan of restructuring is useless? Should Brown have waited for the wind tunnel to come online?

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Written by:

Pranay Bhagi is an F1 writer at EssentiallySports, who has always been passionate about sports and writing. With a degree from a prestigious institute, he has channeled his enthusiasm into sports journalism, particularly F1, a sport that has captivated him for over a decade. Pranay's deep-rooted love for the sport began during the Sebastian Vettel era, and he has been following it religiously ever since.

Edited by:

Varunkumaar Chelladurai

Zak Brown’s Chopping & Changing Termed Pointless as McLaren’s “Biggest Issue” Revealed by Aston Martin Insider

Pedro de la Rosa praises Aston Martin’s development despite using old tools.

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