Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    Sports
    Home / Sports / Motor news

    Brown likes McLaren's direction, as it tries to usurp Red Bull

    Updated: 2024-09-20 09:09
    Share
    Share - WeChat
    McLaren chief engineer Tom Stallard celebrates with the team's Australian driver Oscar Piastri (right) after he won the Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday. AP

    McLaren Racing heads into Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix as Formula 1's hot new darling and the team that just may be able to finally dethrone Red Bull, while ending the dominance of Max Verstappen.

    Red Bull and its Dutch driver have had an ironclad grip on both the drivers' championship and the more lucrative constructors' title since Verstappen won his first championship in 2021. Verstappen has three consecutive titles and leads the driver standings; Red Bull has back-to-back constructors' titles but, headed into the weekend, is no longer in pole position.

    McLaren took the top spot with Oscar Piastri's win last Sunday. Coupled with Lando Norris' fourth-place finish, McLaren is now the constructors' leader for the first time since 2014. McLaren last won the constructors' championship in 1998.

    McLaren starts the weekend in Singapore with a 20-point lead over Red Bull, which had led the constructors' competition since 2022.

    "I think we've got as good a shot as anyone," Zak Brown, the chief executive of McLaren, boldly declared Sunday at the North America-based IndyCar's season-ending race.

    He'd watched Piastri win and McLaren move to the top from Nashville, Tennessee, and even with the big-talking American half a world away, McLaren still managed to make tongues wag at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

    McLaren arrived in Baku and admitted it would prioritize Norris and the drivers' championship over Piastri for the final eight races of this season. Norris trails Verstappen by 59 points in the standings, and Piastri certainly understood the assignment, getting the win for his team.

    "Obviously, no racing driver wants to compromise their own race, so of course he doesn't love it, but he's a great team player, totally understands, also knows the role could be reversed in the future," Brown said of Piastri being given the wingman role for the remainder of the season.

    "Also, it's not totally out of the question that it will be reversed later this year. If Lando goes out and has a couple of DNFs, Oscar goes out and wins a couple of races..." Brown shrugged. "So, I think (Piastri) recognizes that what goes around comes around, and it can very much come around his way."

    Norris and Piastri have combined to win two of the last three F1 races for McLaren, while Verstappen hasn't won since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23. While the team has said it wants Norris to dethrone Verstappen, Brown knows it is a long shot, unless Norris can find a way to hammer away larger chunks of Verstappen's lead in every race.

    In Baku last Sunday, Verstappen finished one spot behind Norris in fifth, and Norris only gained three points on the champion.

    "Lando made some points, but he needs to double the amount of points he got (in Baku) every race to catch him," Brown said. "I think that's a tall order, but we're gonna try."

    Make no mistake, though, McLaren is hyper-focused on the constructors' title, which is the one that pays the big money. The payout to the winning team is set by variables each year, but is typically worth at least $140 million in prize money.

    Red Bull's recent decline has been so dramatic that Brown doesn't even consider the team to be the top rivals for best constructor this year.

    "I think Ferrari has showed how quick they are, so I actually think Ferrari might even be a bigger threat than Red Bull as we sit here right now, because I think Ferrari will be really strong in Singapore," Brown said.

    Red Bull, between Verstappen and Sergio Perez, won 38 races in 2022 and 2023. Verstappen through 17 races has seven wins this year; Perez is yet to claim a Grand Prix.

    Brown praised McLaren's rise under team principal Andrea Stella, who was lauded as "a wonderful team boss".

    "Andrea and the leadership team have been able to unlock the potential and the people," Brown said of his young team's turnaround. McLaren is one of racing's most popular brands globally, and Brown has been clawing the team back toward the top-tier of F1 after a long drought.

    Agencies via Xinhua

    Most Popular

    Highlights

    What's Hot
    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    A狠狠久久蜜臀婷色中文网 | 国产亚洲精品无码专区| 最近免费中文字幕大全免费版视频| 性无码专区无码片| 久久久99精品成人片中文字幕| 免费无码国产V片在线观看| 无码人妻精品一区二区三| 日本乱中文字幕系列| 亚洲精品无码99在线观看| 国产午夜无码视频在线观看 | 小13箩利洗澡无码视频网站| 日韩精品中文字幕第2页| 亚洲精品成人无码中文毛片不卡 | 免费VA在线观看无码| 人妻丰满熟妇无码区免费| 中文字幕乱码人妻无码久久| 亚洲日本中文字幕天堂网| 亚洲电影中文字幕| 最新版天堂资源中文网| 国产成人三级经典中文| 制服丝袜中文字幕在线| 日韩亚洲变态另类中文| 中文字幕亚洲综合小综合在线| 国产高清无码二区| 精品亚洲成α人无码成α在线观看 | 蜜桃臀无码内射一区二区三区| 精品无码一区二区三区电影| 台湾无码AV一区二区三区| 亚洲不卡无码av中文字幕| 亚洲国产中文v高清在线观看| 日本免费在线中文字幕| 7国产欧美日韩综合天堂中文久久久久| 欧美乱人伦人妻中文字幕| 在线观看免费中文视频| 中文字幕久久欲求不满| 中文字幕国产91| 亚洲中文字幕不卡无码| 日韩精品无码一本二本三本| 国产精品无码无片在线观看| 国产精品亚洲αv天堂无码| 欧美日韩国产中文高清视频|