McLaren CEO Zak Brown Points Out Anomaly We Saw In 2023: 'It's Weird'

Monday, 08 January 2024 at 04:00

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Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren's Formula One team, discussed one weird aspect of the most recent season.

The 2023 season is going down, according to many, as the most dominated season by a single team in the history of Formula One, even despite the fact the bar was set pretty high already.

Until 2023, the most dominant season in the history of the sport was considered the year 1988, when McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won 15 out of 16 races of the season.

By winning 21 out of 22 races during the 2023 season and breaking numerous records, Red Bull might just have raised the bar even higher than McLaren did.

While the season has been dominated by the team from Milton Keynes in terms of results, all F1 teams have been probably more closely matched than ever before. Zak Brown told Sky Sports:

“"It’s weird; on Max’s level, there’s never been a less competitive season. Behind Max, it’s never been a more competitive season."”

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McLaren knew how closely matched the grid was because one upgrade allowed the Papaya team to go from the back of the grid to regularly competing for podiums.

In fact, if there was no Max Verstappen, there would be seven different Grand Prix winners from five different teams in last year's season.

The grid was so closely matched it was normal to see drivers from the last team in the Constructor's Championship in the top ten in qualifying.

Many teams see this as proof of budget cap regulations showing their effect, and it also gives hope to every single team they don't need to make huge steps forward to become competitive again. Brown added:

“"The grid was unbelievably close, we had five teams with [eight] or more podiums, which is a record. So, one car that is uncompetitive with the rest of the field, and the rest of the field is unbelievably competitive."”