Zak Brown gives simple but BRUTAL verdict on McLaren misery

Stuart Hodge
Tuesday 7 March 2023 22:45

Zak Brown has provided a very simple and very brutal assessment of McLaren's struggles in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

The team CEO took to social media on Tuesday night to tell fans exactly what he thought of events in Sakhir over the weekend.

Lando Norris was forced to pit six times as he was last of the 17 classified finishers on Sunday, while rookie Oscar Piastri was an early retirement.

Zak Brown on McLaren Sakhir pain

Brown's take on it all was short and not at all sweet as he told fans: "Bahrain wasn’t good enough.

"We know McLaren should be better than that, and we know we’re better than that. The team is working hard to get us back into the points in Saudi."

Bahrain wasn’t good enough. We know McLaren should be better than that, and we know we’re better than that. The team is working hard to get us back into the points in Saudi. pic.twitter.com/aOadtYqRQH

— Zak Brown (@ZBrownCEO) March 7, 2023

Norris talked in detail about the issues he had on Sunday, being forced to stop every 10 laps to refill his pneumatic systems.

In total, Norris pitted six times while the remainder of the field executed a mix of two and three-stop plans.

Lando Norris on Bahrain misery

"We could have boxed (retired) after the first problem," he conceded.

"After they knew I was going to have to box every 10 laps, they knew I was going to be out of the race very quickly but we still tried to stay in it for as long as possible.

“That’s why we only retired with two laps to go.

“We’ve scored points in the past in Jeddah. There was no reason why we shouldn’t have scored points here and that continues into the next race.

“We’re optimistic. We still believe we can score points with the car that we have which makes us optimistic for the later part of the season.”