Don't expect McLaren wins in 2017 - Brown

McLaren executive director Zak Brown has warned that it’s unrealistic to expect victories from the team this season as it continues working to recover front-running form

Brown started work at McLaren in December following the ousting of chairman and chief executive Ron Dennis, with the company now run by executive committee. The departure of Dennis came off the back of four-year win drought for the Formula 1 team, with McLaren only securing a double podium at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix in that time and slipping to ninth in the constructors' championship a year later when Honda returned as power unit supplier.

While there was a clear improvement in 2016 as the team finished sixth, Brown admits McLaren is still a long way from being ready to win races again.

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"I've been impressed but not surprised as to how deep the passion is at McLaren through its employees and their desire to win," Brown told RACER. "I think they're all frustrated, as you can imagine, and eager to get back to our winning ways. I don't think our results the last couple of years are something that the team is accustomed to. They don't like it, and they want to turn things around.

"At the same time, it's one step at a time, so while we're doing all the right things, [to get] success we need to move up the grid. I would caution we're not going to be winning any races in the next year, I don't anticipate. So we need to be measured on forward progress as opposed to ultimate results in 2017.

"We've got the enthusiasm to be winning races and the championship, but I don't think we're there yet with our overall package, and therefore I'm just eager to see us keep moving up the grid and get ourselves into a position to start winning races in 2018."

Asked if managing expectations is one of his main tasks at present, Brown replied: "Oh yeah, absolutely.

"I like the enthusiasm but we need to keep realistic. Patience isn't something that anyone in racing necessarily has a lot of – it's not that type of sport – but if we set expectations too high then we're setting ourselves up for failure. So we've got to let our enthusiasm and passion drive us but not set ourselves up for failure.

"When it comes to sponsorship, it's very kind that some people have very high expectations and are asking me questions about title sponsorship; I've been on the job 45 days, it takes a year to find a title sponsor and there's no guarantee.

"Our results are very visible both on the track and on the car, so that comes with a certain amount of pressure, a lot of pressure, but as you will have seen I've told people to not expect miracles in 2017.

"What I've said internally is I think 2017 is going to feel good - meaning the team is going to come together, we're excited, we're working well – [but] I think 2018 is going to look good. So to the naked eye you may not see as much progress as we're going to see internally from '17, but '18 is going to be a year when people can really start to see a difference."

Additional reporting by Marshall Pruett