McLaren’s chief executive officer Zak Brown says Alpine is “definitely beatable” based on his team’s performance in last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
The first major upgrade to the McLaren MCL60 was introduced on Lando Norris‘ car at the Red Bull Ring. He qualified fourth, only 0.267 seconds off pole, and followed that up with third in qualifying for the sprint race.Although a poor start meant Norris plunged to 10th on lap one of the sprint race, and he only made back one place while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished seventh, the grand prix was much more rewarding for the team. Norris finished fourth to cut McLaren’s gap to fifth-placed Alpine in the constructors’ standings as they scored a single point with Pierre Gasly in tenth place.
That has given Brown confidence McLaren can beat Alpine, who it lost fourth place in the championship to last year. “I think they’re definitely beatable,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.
“It’s going to be tough. I think they’ve got a fast race car and two drivers that have the ability to run at the front. And I’m sure they’ve got upgrades coming.”
Brown said the team has made clear progress since new team principal Andrea Stella reorganised the operation earlier this year. “When we look at our development curve from when Andrea restructured, moved some people around, bringing in some new people – some of which have started, some that haven’t – the development rate has been much better than we saw last year,” Brown to media including RaceFans.
“I think Austria was a great validation that we thought we’d be pretty strong. Now we need to make sure that continues on these other races and that it wasn’t track-specific.”
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The team is in the process of rolling out a major upgrade over three consecutive races. “We’ve got a lot more development coming,” said Brown. “I wouldn’t want to predict where we’ll be, our desires are to be mingling it up with the top four teams like we did this weekend.
“Obviously there’s a big points gap with the top four teams, so whether we can catch that is probably a tall order. I think the battle with Alpine and others for fifth is very much on, but I hope that we continue with this development rate and we have more weekends like we had this weekend where we’re playing with the top four teams on a pure pace basis.”
The Austrian GP was the third time in nine rounds that the highest-placed McLaren finished further up the order on Sunday than the highest-placed Alpine. McLaren took nine points off Alpine in Austria, and the two are now separated by just 18.
McLaren will continue to press on with its upgrade plan over the coming races. “We’ll have Oscar [Piastri]’s car where Lando’s was this weekend. Lando will have some some further upgrades. And then we do have, as all the teams do, upgrades throughout the year. One more significant upgrade to come in later in the year.
“So I feel like we’re in the race with Alpine now and I think we can’t make any mistakes, we’ve got to have a good, reliable car, get our pit stop right, get our launches right, not have any unlucky incidents, which is part of racing. But I think the fight’s definitely on with Alpine.”
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2023 Austrian Grand Prix
- Mercedes left scratching heads by lack of performance at Austrian GP
- Verstappen’s determination to grab every point makes him a record-breaker
- Austrian GP track limits farce was avoidable like ‘IndyGate’ and Spa 2021 – Brown
- Alpine now “definitely beatable” for McLaren after upgrade – Brown
- Paddock Diary: 2023 Austrian Grand Prix
Jere (@jerejj)
5th July 2023, 9:02
Yes, an 18-point deficit to Alpine is definitely catchable within the remaining season, although this would effectively require consistent double-points finishes.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
5th July 2023, 11:59
One swallow doesn’t make a summer, Zak. Give it a few more races before you start dreaming.
pastaman
5th July 2023, 13:11
isthatglock21
5th July 2023, 13:50
Most Alpine thing ever. 2 weeks ago they were talking about overtaking Ferrari & Merc. Those annoying Hollywood prats are a perfect excuse to reset the ‘100 race’ target for the 10th time. French being French.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
5th July 2023, 16:14
It is too bad McLaren had such a poor start to the season, cause they seem to be the 2nd quickest car now, but their points deficit to the top 4 is too big now to catch up.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th July 2023, 23:20
2nd quickest car is an exageration, there’s no basis for that in austria: ferrari were significantly quicker, however mclaren was as fast as aston and mercedes; whether they can be as fast in other races I don’t know.
SpaFrancorchamps (@spafrancorchamps)
8th July 2023, 16:41
@esploratore1 The nature of the Red Bull Ring played into McLaren’s weaknesses, and still they did very well there. Now here in Silverstone it is very clear that they are the 2nd fastest and more updates expected to come in Budapest.