F1 | McLaren, Brown: “2019 will be an important year for us. Development is proceeding according to plan”

2019 will have to be the year of redemption for McLaren. After a 2018 lacking in satisfaction which also saw the English team lose Fernando Alonso, who announced his retirement to dedicate himself to other competitions and new challenges, McLaren will have to prove that it lives up to its name and reverse course to return to obtaining good results.

Woking is the second most successful team in the history of Formula 1, but has not managed to achieve a success since 2012, when Jenson Button managed to obtain victory in the last round of the season in Brazil. With the arrival of Honda there were great expectations for a partnership that was to retrace the triumphs of the 80s, but reality told a different story, unimaginable even in the worst nightmares. After the divorce at the end of 2017 and the move to Honda Power Units, McLaren thought it had solved its problems and could return to aiming for prestigious results, but even in this case reality showed a different situation, in which all the team's limitations came to light. Given the poor performances, the English team has begun a profound reorganization, saying goodbye to Eric Boullier and Tim Goss and focusing on new technicians who should arrive to strengthen the technical department. On which everyone undoubtedly stands out the name of James Key, the engineer coming from Toro Rosso which should become the point of reference for a team that must make important steps forward to return to the glories of the past. All this also coincided with the arrival of Andreas Seidl in the role of Managing Director, a highly experienced person who will certainly be able to be of great help.

“2019 will be a very important year for us” – said Zak Brown at the Autosport International Show -. “We are building a good car. Development during the winter break went according to plan, but obviously it's difficult to know what rivals have done. We need good feedback from our drivers. 2019 will be a very different car to 2018. We have two good drivers and to take a step forward as a team, we need to get both cars into the points. They know it. This is the team's goal,” added the McLaren CEO.

McLaren said it understood the weak points of the 2018 car, essentially related to aerodynamic problems. Despite a good start and the numerous updates brought, the English team soon understood the limitations of the MCL33 and that solving them would require an enormous effort, therefore shifting attention early on to the 2019 single-seater so as not to make the same mistakes: “All The people at McLaren have worked hard to make sure we've built a better car than 2018, because I'm sure our drivers don't want to drive last year's car!” Brown then concluded.