We are not going to improve this year: McLaren

Published 09/10/2018, 12:18 PM EDT

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McLaren CEO, Zak Brown, has bluntly stated that the 2018 spec car has been developed poorly and that fans should not expect an upturn in their performances in the remaining seven races of the season.

“I would expect, unfortunately, similar type of results, maybe a little more circuit-specific, over the balance of the year. I certainly wouldn’t expect any miracles,” Brown told Autosport when asked if McLaren could improve their race pace and results.

“We’ll continue to push on this car but unfortunately we’ve produced an extremely poor racecar that is not that responsive to changes, which will tell you that inherently we don’t have a good racecar.”

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Alonso, who is retiring at the end of the season, had blasted McLaren for going ‘backwards‘ in its development and Brown agreed with his veteran driver. “It appears we’ve gone backwards. In reality, everyone else has gone forwards, but in Formula 1 if you’re not going forwards you’re going backwards,” said Brown.

“Other teams have developed at a faster pace than ourselves. We knew Spa and Monza-type circuits would be our absolute weak points in the car, which are proving to be the case.”

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“We’re not giving up on developing because we’re identifying the issues and want to see if we’re able to solve them,” the McLaren CEO added.

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The team enjoyed a strong start to the season with some points finishes early on before problems started with the Monaco Grand Prix, where Alonso retired with an engine issue. Since then, some problem or the other has constantly plagued them.

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The unidentifiable aspect of the McLaren car has been the wind tunnel, which has led to a loss of pace but after hearing from Brown, it seems the issue still remains unresolved. Any hopes that Alonso may have harboured of a fairy-tale end to his F1 career have also evaporated.

 

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Written by:

Rahul Venkat

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