Revealed: McLaren’s final eight-race F1 2024 plan as ‘crazy, crazy’ event looms large

McLaren CEO Zak Brown is eager to see his team continue to deliver on its potential by aiming for victory at every single race for the rest of the year. With three victories so far in F1 2024, McLaren has been in contention for multiple other wins throughout the season as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are no strangers to the podium. Trailing reigning World Champions Red Bull by just eight points with eight race weekends left, McLaren’s momentum and form is such that the Woking-based team is likely to take the lead of the Constructors’ Championship at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The MCL38 has been developed into what now appears to be F1’s fastest and most versatile car with comprehensive wins in Hungary and the Netherlands backed up by just missing out in Belgium and Italy as Mercedes and Ferrari, respectively, utilised effective one-stop strategies to beat McLaren’s two-stops. McLaren was beaten to the win at Monza as Charles Leclerc delivered under pressure to delight the tifosi at Ferrari’s home race, but Oscar Piastri just missed out on being able to pile the pressure on the Monegasque as he reeled in Leclerc at the chequered flag. With eight races to go, McLaren CEO Zak Brown said there’s no longer any reason for his team to doubt its ability to fight for victories at any of the remaining circuits.



“I don’t see why we can’t be going for the win every race weekend,” he told Sky F1 . “I think we’re going to have tough competition, but I think we’ve shown our car is good in kind of all conditions, all different types of circuits. “We were very strong in Singapore last year.

” The unpredictable nature of the street circuit racing in Azerbaijan could make things a little tricky next time out, but Brown said the aim remains the same. “Baku is always a bit of a crazy, crazy race,” he said. “But, you know, we’re going to show up every weekend, trying to go for pole, trying to go for a front row lockout, trying to win.

“I’m sure it won’t quite work like that for the next eight races, because the competition is tough. I think what we have is a three-way race for the Constructors’ Championship, because Ferrari is 30 points behind but look at them [at Monza] – it was them and us. So I think it’s exciting to see what happens.

” 👉 Zak Brown car collection: The legendary machines owned by the McLaren boss 👉 ‘Papaya rules’ explained: What are McLaren instructing their drivers with new phrase? With McLaren having had to settle for second and third at Monza, team boss Andrea Stella refuted the suggestion the MCL38 was the quickest car of the weekend but admitted that he is hopeful the team can “capitalise more” on the competitiveness of the car. “In terms of the race, I think there may be a misunderstanding that the McLaren was by far the fastest car,” he said. “I think Leclerc was as fast as McLaren because he could stay with Oscar in the first stint.

“Normally, when you have the dirty air and you can stay with the race leader, it means that you are, at least, as fast as the race leader. This normally leads to some more degradation, like what Leclerc had in the final bit of the first stint, and, even in the second stint, he was behind the two McLarens, and still he could stay with us. “So I think Ferrari, at this weekend, they were as competitive as us – at least with Leclerc – which, for us, is bad news, because it meant that we couldn’t simply cruise in the race, and we needed to deal with them, and they did a good job in exploiting some of these strengths.

” But, with McLaren aiming to topple Red Bull from the top of the standings, Stella reckons the more interlopers in the battle can only help the Woking-based squad out as Red Bull currently appears unable to fight McLaren directly. “It is good news because we have more cars that can take points away from Red Bull,” he said. “So I think, actually, this is better news for us, and we need to make sure that we, like I said before, maximise the potential that is available in the car, even if it means that on this kind of circuit, Ferrari will set a very, very serious challenge for the victory.

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