McLaren CEO Zak Brown says the team’s pointless outing in Miami “sucked” but is optimistic their performance in Monaco and the races that follow will improve, believing they will have “a strong second half of the year”.
Miami saw both McLaren drivers finish outside the points for the third time this season, following pointless races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri taking the checkered flag in 17 and 19 respectively.
While Norris was hit from behind by AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries early on, McLaren’s problems were exacerbated by Piastri suffering what he described as a “major failure” in his electronic brake six laps into the Grand Prix.
Reflecting on that weekend in the latest episode of the f1 nation Brown admitted to Tom Clarkson and Natalie Pinkham that while he and his team were disappointed by their performance in Miami, they are excited about the prospect of improving in Monaco and the upcoming races.
“Miami sucked, clearly disappointing,” Brown said. “We are learning more about our car and understanding why we weren’t where we needed to be in Miami.
“So the first step if you have a problem is to understand it instead of scratching your head in confusion.
“I think we will do well in Monaco; Obviously we came to the table with an underdeveloped car at the beginning of the year. We knew we called our shot, and it turned out that we knew we weren’t going to be where we wanted to be.
“But the exciting part is that we think we’re going to get a lot better. For Monaco, there is not much development so I think it will be more the second half of the year. But we’ve run well in Monaco, and we think it’s a track that suits our car better than Miami.
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“So, I think we should be fine, but it’s very tight on the pitch. So you only need to deviate a tenth or two to be right to the front or right to the rear.”
Despite failing to score points in Bahrain, Jeddah and Miami, McLaren finished in the top 10 in Melbourne and Baku.
When asked by Tom Clarkson why the MCL60 has been inconsistent, Brown replied: “I think race cars can be temperamental in their characteristics.
“Obviously the big race cars are good in all conditions. We have a car that doesn’t like the heat very much, it’s a little limited in the rear. Miami was hot, it’s a new track and it lacked some grip like a new track would.
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“Miami was a circuit like Bahrain that doesn’t suit our car. Obviously, when we get a better car, you want to smooth out where our ups and downs are and have a better average.
“I think Monaco will be better, we feel good about Montreal and we will start to have some more significant developments around Austria and the British Grand Prix. with a little luck [we’re] on track for a strong second half of the year.”