{"id":23073,"date":"2024-08-19T04:31:25","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T08:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=23073"},"modified":"2024-08-19T04:45:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T08:45:02","slug":"zak-brown-mclaren-lineup-gives-us-edge-in-the-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/19\/zak-brown-mclaren-lineup-gives-us-edge-in-the-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Brown: McLaren lineup gives us edge in the Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The F1 summer break comes to an end this weekend, with the action returning in Zandvoort. The Dutch GP will see the front-running teams under immense pressure to deliver. McLaren<\/a> and Red Bull<\/a> are under a unique level of scrutiny as they contend for the Constructors title. According to Zak Brown, McLaren’s driver line-up gives them an advantage.<\/p>\n

McLaren confident in Championship aspirations<\/h2>\n

Oscar Piastri<\/a> and Lando Norris<\/a> have both claimed their maiden F1 victories this year. Ironically, both drivers will feel they could (and probably should) have claimed more wins in 2024.<\/p>\n

Strategic mistakes and operational shortcomings are still significant limiting factors for McLaren.<\/p>\n

Unforced errors have frequently seen McLaren fail to capitalise on their superior pace. Even with Sergio Perez<\/a> struggling for results, the Woking-based outfit are yet to overtake Red Bull in the standings.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Perez, Zak Brown<\/a> believes the Mexican’s performance will determine this year’s Championship:<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be tough. I think it’s going to come down to the last race,” <\/em>he told the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“There’s not much between the cars. <\/em>It’s gonna come down to how does Sergio Perez perform?<\/em><\/p>\n

“If he can perform as he’s capable of performing, it’s going to be a hard fight. <\/em>If he continues to perform as he has this year, we have a pretty good chance. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Because we have two drivers constantly performing at the front.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, Andrea Stella, Team Principal, McLaren F1 Team, and Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 2nd position, after the race<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verstappen remains the driver to beat<\/h3>\n

Of course, Brown’s comments were focused on the Constructors Championship. The chances of McLaren claiming the Drivers Championship with either Norris or Piastri are quite low.<\/p>\n

Norris is almost 80 points behind Max Verstappen<\/a>, whilst his Australian teammate’s deficit is over 110 points.<\/p>\n

Although McLaren are recognised as the fastest team, Red Bull are still close enough to give Verstappen race-winning options.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman’s consistency has allowed him to maintain a significant cushion in the standings.<\/p>\n

With Ferrari<\/a> and Mercedes<\/a> also capable of winning races, bridging the gap to Verstappen becomes an even bigger task for McLaren.<\/p>\n

Still, as Zak Brown points out, they in a position to push Red Bull all the way in the Constructors’ battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The F1 summer break comes to an end this weekend, with the action returning in Zandvoort. The Dutch GP will see the front-running teams under immense pressure to deliver. McLaren and Red Bull are under a unique level of scrutiny as they contend for the Constructors title. According to Zak Brown, McLaren’s driver line-up gives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":23076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,465,2251,66,812],"class_list":["post-23073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-mcl38","tag-mclaren","tag-zak-brown"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}