McLaren CEO Zak Brown claimed the team elected to modify its controversial ‘mini-DRS’ rear wing to prove to its Formula 1 rivals that it wasn’t the secret to its newfound advantage.
The Woking-based McLaren F1 squad has risen from being a backmarker at the start of 2023 to leading the 2024 Constructors’ standings by 41 points with six rounds remaining.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have claimed three of the last four victories, with the latter’s in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix inviting scrutiny.
Rivals complained that the upper element of the McLaren rear wing was flexing too much on the long start/finish straight at Baku.
McLaren agreed with the FIA to modify its rear wing to ease rivals’ concerns.
But Brown implied there was more behind the decision in his conversation with The Times.
“Whoever’s winning, everyone’s always staring at the car to understand what they’re doing,” he said.
“It’s totally natural that people are staring at our car at the moment and then coming to conclusions, a lot of them incorrectly.
“We’ve passed every single test.
“We offered to make a small modification, just because we don’t think it will make much of a difference and there’s a lot of noise around it — so to demonstrate that there’s no secret sauce, we were like, ‘Well, we’ll modify it slightly.’”
Brown not surprised by complaints over McLaren rear wing
Red Bull and Ferrari team principals Christian Horner and Frederic Vasseur expressed their displeasure to the FIA regarding McLaren’s rear wing.
Flexing is one of the harder-to-enforce parameters in F1’s technical regulations.
McLaren’s rear wing wasn’t technically illegal, but the team’s detractors felt the drag reduction benefits caused by its flexing weren’t in the spirit of the regulations.
“They [rivals] wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they weren’t making noise,” Brown explained.
“It’s a compliment that people are looking at our car and challenging. We’ve got good innovation on our car.”
McLaren advantage boosting Norris title chances
Such is McLaren’s performance advantage, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen hasn’t won in any of the last eight rounds.
This has allowed Norris to narrow the gap in the Drivers’ standings to 52 points with six rounds remaining.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after Norris’ lights-to-flag Singapore GP victory, Nico Rosberg said “That’s going to have Red Bull scared because with this speed to the end of the year, it’s realistic that Lando can really win all the remaining races.
“And for Max to come second is so difficult… The World Championship is still on.”
READ MORE: Red Bull F1 gap to McLaren a ‘whole new world’ – Helmut Marko
