McLaren Eyes Title Amid Pérez's Struggles

McLaren F1 aims for the constructors’ championship, reliant on overcoming Pérez’s current challenges.

Zak Brown wants McLaren F1 to reaffirm its strong performance one more time before the summer break, to bolster its ambitions in the constructors’ championship. The CEO of the British team is particularly focused on the constructors’ championship, which he believes is within the team’s grasp.

“We want to finish the first half of the season and see where we stand this weekend,” he told Sky. “I think the constructors’ championship, although not easy, is definitely within our reach. I think the challenge for the drivers is that Max’s bad days are second and third places.”

“So, we can climb back as we are doing in the constructors because Pérez is struggling right now, and we also know he can get going at any moment, so I think that’s something we’ll discuss during the summer break.”

At Spa, Max Verstappen recorded the best time in the first session, with strong performances in the twisty parts. Brown gauges where the Dutchman will be on the grid with his penalty: “Max’s second sector was really great. You have to assume he’s playing for pole, which means 11th.”

“You can overtake here. I believe he went from ninth to ninth place in two or three laps not so long ago. So it would be a serious mistake to think he can’t move from P11 to P1, but we need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way.”

Brown is convinced that McLaren made the right decision in having Oscar Piastri win in Hungary, even though it resulted in team orders for Lando Norris, and the American justifies this: “Speaking with Lando, I don’t think he feels he could have beaten Oscar. Oscar was flying and the counter-curve had a big gap.”

“If we had brought Oscar into the pits first, he would have come out six or seven seconds ahead. But we wanted to be sure to cover Lewis [Hamilton], and it turned out that was the case. So I think he had to do it right away. And then you definitely don’t want them fighting on the last lap. But we wanted him to take his chance.”