F1 News: McLaren CEO Reveals 'Brave' Upgrades to 2025 Car - 'Much More Prepared'

Saajan Jogia | Dec 10, 2024

May 4, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Crewmembers push the car of McLaren driver Lando Norris (4) on the grid before the F1 Sprint Race at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-Imagn Images / John David Mercer-Imagn Images

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed a huge mindset shift within the team in the way it approaches the 2025 season, as compared to early this year when the strategy was to be as good as the other teams. Having had the confidence of winning the Constructors' Championship this year with a strong title contender, Brown hinted at radical changes being planned on the 2025 car with the aim to "beat everyone."

Brown admitted that McLaren never expected it would be the championship winner when it started the season with the aim of being at par with the competition. Now, though, the team plans to take a "brave risk" with the car to dominate races next year, creating a machine that would considerably step up the level of competition by a significant margin. Speaking to Motorsport.com, the CEO said:

“We're going into next year at full strength.

“I think we're in a different mindset now in terms of the confidence of the team and the amount of bravery that the team is prepared to take in the development in next year's car.

“The team is not: 'let's just tweak a little here and there. The car is pretty good.' We've got some stuff on next year's car that is like ‘brave risk’.

“I think you only get to the front if you try and beat everyone, as opposed to the mindset when we started this year which was like ‘let’s just be as good as them.' The mind shift is now: ‘let's beat everyone'."

Brown stressed that the team must move past its cautious mindset and instead focus on leveraging its strengths to make bold advancements. He added:

“We’ve got to out-develop them, out-drive them, and out-strategise them - as opposed to this mindset of, ‘just don't make any mistakes.' That's just not competitive enough.

“Commercially we are now super strong, and we’ve got two great drivers. That's a huge strength.

“But damn the competition is good. Mercedes is right there, and the Ferraris and Red Bulls too, right?

“Just as you kind of feel like they're starting to slide a bit, they smash it. So I think you have got four teams next year, and any of them could be winning both championships.”

McLaren stepped into 2024, aiming to finish in the top three in the Constructors' Championship. Now that it knows where it stands in the pack, Brown revealed that the team will head into 2025 with the mindset of winning both championships. He continued:

“I think we'll be much more prepared next year, because I think we came into this year thinking not in a million years are we going to be where we are.

“We were almost even mentally not prepared. We weren't unprepared, but we just didn't go in with this mindset that we have right now.

“I think we'll go into next year knowing how damn hard it's going to be, but wanting to win the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships.

“This year it was, ‘let's be top three and see if we can get Lando his first win.’ We've moved on from that. Now it's we've got two drivers that can compete for the world championship, and let's go for both.”