McLaren F1 boss makes bullish title prediction ahead of 2024

Christian Horner talking with Zak Brown — Photo: © LAT Images

F1 News & Gossip

McLaren F1 boss makes bullish title prediction ahead of 2024

Zak Brown's team bounced back from a horror start to finish fourth overall

Shay Rogers

Tuesday 28 November 2023 15:57

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Zak Brown is confident in McLaren's ability to challenge in 2024 but admitted that Red Bull will still be the team to beat at the front of the Formula 1 field.

Having experienced one of the most dominant seasons in the sport’s history, Red Bull have had plenty of time to suspend development on their current car in order to focus on making the RB20 even better.

Aside from a floor update in Hungary, Red Bull brought forward very little and were still incredibly successful in 2023.

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McLaren, on the other hand, have been in constant pursuit of the stopwatch, having brought multiple upgrades to date. This may have affected how much time they have spent on their 2024 car, however.

McLaren have arguably been the second best team in the second half of the Formula 1 season

It will take a remarkable effort to displace the formidable Red Bull at the top of the F1 standings

But Zak Brown is confident McLaren will take steps forward

Brown: We’re feeling really good

But team boss Brown is in positive spirits ahead of next year's challenge, though he did concede that Red Bull are the favourites to retain their crown.

"Well it's probably going to be Red Bull but I would not want to rule anybody else out," he told Sky Sports F1. "There’s a lot of great teams on the grid. We're feeling really good about our car for next year.

"[It's] hard to kind of know when Red Bull maybe stopped developing this year's car to get going on next year's. But we definitely feel like we will take a step forward but so will the entire grid and we’re just going to have to wait and see."

McLaren have just under three months to prepare their car for pre-season testing in Bahrain, where they will get a measure of whether they will be able to compete for their first title in over a decade.

Red Bull McLaren Formula 1 Zak Brown Hungarian Grand Prix