{"id":486065,"date":"2024-08-07T05:19:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T09:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=486065"},"modified":"2024-08-07T04:14:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T08:14:47","slug":"zak-brown-says-mclaren-improvement-came-earlier-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/zak-brown-says-mclaren-improvement-came-earlier-than-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Brown says McLaren improvement came earlier than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren Formula 1 team boss Zak Brown has expressed his astonishment at the team&#8217;s competitive position in the Constructors&#8217; Championship, where they trail Red Bull by only 42 points with ten races left in the season.<\/p>\n<p>Brown shared his thoughts in an exclusive interview with BBC Sport, acknowledging the unexpected progress McLaren has made this season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">McLaren boss Zak Brown has been surprised by his own team&#8217;s performance in this season&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@F1<\/a> \ud83c\udfc1 \ud83c\udfce<\/p>\n<p>Can they challenge Red Bull for the title?<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/bbcformula1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#bbcformula1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lwANtWHcZV\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/lwANtWHcZV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BBC Sport (@BBCSport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCSport\/status\/1821072161416634448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I sit here and say I\u2019m not surprised, that would be disingenuous,\u201d Brown admitted. \u201cRed Bull had such an advantage over everyone, and Mercedes was so dominant. I felt that we would continue to close the gap. Did I think we would be here during the summer break, one race away from taking the lead? No.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While Brown is realistic about the immediate future, acknowledging that overtaking Red Bull in the next race would be a tall order, he remains optimistic about the team&#8217;s trajectory. \u201cThis race would need to be a first and second place with the fastest lap, and do I think that will happen? No. But if we keep the same trajectory we&#8217;ve had over the last six or seven races, by the end of the year we will be where we need to be,&#8221; he stated.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the team&#8217;s progress, Brown added, &#8220;I thought by 2025 we might get to where we are now. I didn\u2019t think in 2024 we would be where we are now. But I\u2019m not complaining.&#8221; His comments highlight McLaren&#8217;s rapid development and the potential for the team to challenge for the championship sooner than anticipated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren Formula 1 team boss Zak Brown has expressed his astonishment at the team&#8217;s competitive position in the Constructors&#8217; Championship, where they trail [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":486066,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17020,20269],"news_category":[16921],"gn_keywords":[18097,20413],"acf":{"announce":"\"I thought by 2025 we might get to where we are now\", he says","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/486065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/486065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486067,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/486065\/revisions\/486067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486065"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=486065"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=486065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}