Formula 1: Zak Brown not convinced McLaren are the best midfield team

McLaren

Brown not convinced McLaren are the best midfield team

They are at the moment...

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 13 August 2019 16:30

McLaren team principal Zak Brown is not yet convinved that they are ‘best of the rest’ as fourth-placed team behind the elite trio of Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren.

While the front-runners have been the teams and drivers involved in competing for race victories, McLaren have been impressing in the midfield to quickly establish themselves in fourth in the constructors’ championship ahead of Toro Rosso in fifth.

Even though, in terms of points of at least, they are the fourth best team, Brown thinks they still have plenty of work to do to truly pull away from the pack.

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“I’m not sure we’re solidly the best team in the midfield, because it’s so close, so I think that’s why we need to keep our head down,” the McLaren boss said.

“We’re still early enough in the season that you can go from fourth to eighth in no time.

“We wanted to improve. Our goal was let’s just improve on last year, which in reality we were seventh, not sixth, because of the whole points situation.

“I’m pleased with how we’re doing, and just want to keep our head down and stay focused, because a bad weekend by us and a good weekend by someone else, and you can just fall down the order quickly. But everyone is doing a good job.”

Brown reckons a major contributing factor to their success in 2019 has been the developing relationship between new team-mates, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.

“They’re both very quick, they get along very well, they drive for the team which I think is what I’m most pleased with,” he continued.

“If you look at our competitors, I think one of the reasons why we’re currently fourth in the championship is a lot of credit to our drivers, both bringing it home.

“When you look at some of our competitors, I think their cars are as quick as ours, if not quicker at times, but they have one driver that’s strong or no drivers that are strong.

“But I think our driver combination, they deserve a lot of the credit for where we are right now.”