Key individual pinpointed for “regenerating” McLaren after years of turmoil

Former Formula 1 champion Damon Hill has credited Zak Brown for “regenerating” McLaren and turning it into a dominant force in grand prix racing again.

Under the aegis of Brown, McLaren successfully bounced back from its lows in the mid-2010s with Honda and clinched its first constructors’ titles in over two decades last year.

That form has seemingly carried over to this season, with Oscar Piastri leading a 1-2 for McLaren in the drivers’ championship and the Woking-based squad also heading the constructors’ standings.

While the day-to-day running of McLaren’s F1 team is in the hands of Andrea Stella, Brown joined as the head of its racing department in 2018 and installed key personnel to lay the foundation of its current success.

Following Piastri’s victory in this month’s Miami GP, which made him the first McLaren driver since Mika Hakkinen to complete a hat trick of wins in F1, Hill highlighted Brown's role in turning around the team’s fortunes.

"I saw Zak was there [in the McLaren hospitality unit] and he is as usual completely cock-a-hoop,” Hill told the BBC.

“He is satisfied [with the team]. They've done a great job. He has put those people in place. He has regenerated this team.

“They have delivered a 100 per cent perfect result [in the last three races], there is a statistic going back to Mika Hakkinen about that.

“So they are very happy. They are recovering that reputation they had long ago of being almost unbeatable in every respect.”

McLaren overtake Red Bull as F1's top team

McLaren usurped Red Bull as F1’s benchmark team exactly 12 months ago in Miami and has since strengthened its position at the front of the pack.

The energy drinks giant tried to fight back in Miami with a new floor upgrade, but its star driver Max Verstappen finished outside the podium in fourth place, almost 40 seconds down on Piastri.

Hill believes Red Bull has a lot of work to do to close the gap to McLaren in the final year of the current rule cycle.

“All Red Bull can do is look on in envy," he said. "They came here with a new floor on Max's car, which had new ‘wizzes’ on the side.

“They are basically different shapes on the edge of the floor, which they thought would give them improvements but it wasn't enough for Max.

“He can do it in qualifying, he can extract 100 per cent from the car and that is enough with a margin of six thousand of a tenth or some ridiculous wafer-thing amount like that.

“He can get on pole position or the front row of the grid as he did, but in the race it's relentless - it's about tyre wear, it's about keeping the grip in the tyres.

“If you have got a car advantage you can preserve tyres and he couldn't do that. If he was pushing harder he was dropping back.

“So they know they have got a huge amount of work to do to overcome a 30-second deficit by the end of the race. That's a big chunk of time.”