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Brown lays out five-year McLaren turnaround plan
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has set out a five-year plan that he hopes will see the team returning to winning ways.
The last McLaren victory came in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, meaning it has now been a full six seasons since the team last won a race. Having instigated a number of internal changes in Woking over the past 12 months -- as well as a switch from Honda to Renault power -- Brown says there is a path set out that he believes will return McLaren to the front.
“I have just presented a five-year plan and within that plan, we think we have a journey to get back to winning races, and then once you’re winning races, you’re competing for the championship,” Brown said.
“I think it’s critical that Liberty makes changes to the sport … because right now, the way the sport is going, it’s difficult for more than two or three teams to compete for the championship, so I think there are things that are out of our control, but hopefully we can influence that need to change for multiple teams to be able to win races and compete for the championship.
“We have laid out a journey and investment, a road to recovery that sees us getting back to the front of the grid in that timeline.”
McLaren’s shareholders include the Kingdom of Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, as well as the TAG Group and Canadian businessman Michael Latifi.
Brown says the team’s executive committee is comfortable with the timeframe as long as he can show McLaren is moving in the right direction.
“I think from a time standpoint, clearly we need to show progress. The shareholders are extremely committed. We’re hiring, so they’re investing in the racing team, and I think anyone who invests wants to see a return and progress.
“So there’s not a specific timetable in that X has to be achieved by Y date. I think what they want to see as we all want to see is us moving forward, but there’s no specific timeline on that.”
Presented by:
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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