{"id":30871,"date":"2025-02-24T10:27:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=30871"},"modified":"2025-02-24T10:27:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:27:16","slug":"zak-brown-predicts-ferrari-will-pose-a-major-threat-to-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/02\/24\/zak-brown-predicts-ferrari-will-pose-a-major-threat-to-mclaren\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Brown predicts Ferrari will pose a major threat to McLaren"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes that Ferrari will be contenders in 2025. The 53-year-old views Lewis Hamilton<\/a> and Charles Leclerc as having the experience and raw speed to fight for a Championship.<\/p>\n

If Ferrari maintain last year’s trajectory, this all-star duo will have the necessary machinery to contend.<\/p>\n

Brown is also aware that Red Bull and Mercedes<\/a> could become threats – but argues they driver line-ups are less equipped to fight for a Championship.<\/p>\n

McLaren have a target on their back<\/h2>\n

For the first time in well over a decade, McLaren enter an F1 campaign as favourites to win the title.<\/p>\n

This is not to suggest that Red Bull, Ferrari or even Mercedes can be discounted. However, the Woking squad have far fewer question marks than their rivals – in terms of their 2025 development.<\/p>\n

Even the FIA’s new flexi-wing Technical Directive<\/a>, which will take effect at the Spanish GP, is something McLaren are well on top of.<\/p>\n

Andrea Stella’s personnel already have a solution to mitigate the FIA’s plans for stricter tests on front-wing elasticity.<\/p>\n

Still, this does not mean McLaren can allow themselves to be complacent.<\/p>\n

When asked if Lewis Hamilton could fight for a Championship, McLaren’s Zak Brown answered unequivocally:<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m definitely anticipating Lewis being a championship contender,” <\/em>Brown said at F1 75<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We and Ferrari ended last year with nothing between us, and I think that will continue.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Mercedes were very close [in 2024] and still won four races, so I put them in there.<\/em><\/p>\n

“And, of course, Red Bull, [who had] a super strong first half of the year, a little bit less strong middle of the year, then ended very strong.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari, and Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, on the grid with the Constructors Championship trophy prior to the start<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No question marks at McLaren<\/h4>\n

Arguably one of the biggest strengths that McLaren will enjoy in 2025 – especially in the opening rounds – is continuity.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin are the only other team with an unchanged driver line-up this season.<\/p>\n

Whilst the likes of Lewis Hamilton get up to speed, Norris<\/a> and Piastri<\/a> are aiming to hit the ground running.<\/p>\n

There is also little change at McLaren from a technical perspective. Unlike rival teams, who have shuffled around their engineering and decision-making talent, Andrea Stella’s team is largely unchanged.<\/p>\n

This theme of continuity could be an important one, as Zak Brown eluded to in his subsequent comments:<\/p>\n

“Kimi being a rookie and Liam being – let\u2019s call it inexperienced…<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think from a constructors\u2019 point of view, that will probably present a bit more of a challenge over 24 races.<\/em><\/p>\n

“They\u2019ll inevitably have some rookie weekends, if you like,” <\/em>Brown added.<\/p>\n

“But I think they\u2019re both extremely quick drivers and I anticipate both of them winning races.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I think this season should be epic and even closer than last year. I\u2019m anticipating eight different winners. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised with how competitive it is.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Every weekend last year, while the top four teams were always at the front, there seemed to be someone that was able to kind of disrupt.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I expect that to be happening again. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if there were more than four teams that won.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes that Ferrari will be contenders in 2025. The 53-year-old views Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc as having the experience and raw speed to fight for a Championship. If Ferrari maintain last year’s trajectory, this all-star duo will have the necessary machinery to contend. Brown is also aware that Red Bull […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":30872,"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":[2452,84,66],"class_list":["post-30871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-ferrari","tag-mclaren"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30871","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=30871"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30876,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30871\/revisions\/30876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}