McLaren 'can't compete with top two teams' financially, admits Brown

McLaren executive director Zak Brown has admitted that his team are not 'able to compete financially with the top two teams' in reference to Mercedes and Ferrari, but insisted he is looking forward to the upcoming season after the major disappointments of the last three years.

The Woking-based firm have been using Honda parts for the past three seasons and unfortunately for the partnership, the engines were constantly proved as unreliable. Brown even insisted that “last year was the worst year in the history of McLaren”.

They will now be using Renault engines and although Brown is expecting an upturn in fortunes on the track and perhaps even a shock win at the first Grand Prix in Australia, he has conceded that McLaren cannot compete financially with Mercedes and Ferrari.

“I think you’ll see us leap to the front in Australia," he predicted on US television.

“It’s an expensive sport — we’re not able to compete financially with the top two teams. We’re still definitely one of the top four teams. We need to continue to improve there to put as much resource into our race team as possible. If we can get all of that right we’re going to start to move up the grid significantly.”

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Brown remains hugely confident in his drivers, in particular, Fernando Alonso, who said this week that he expects McLaren to be "very, very competitive" in the 2018 campaign. The Spaniard has been a huge critic of the tenure of Honda, and clearly commands respect within his team.

“Fernando is very diligent, he’s very focused and very demanding of himself and the team," Brown continued.

"When Fernando comes into the garage you see everyone stand up a little more upright."