Brown staying 'realistic' over McLaren F1 recovery timescale

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is remaining realistic about the timescale before the team's recovery in Formula 1, believing it will be somewhere between two and 10 years before it can fight for Formula 1 world championships again, saying the fix will not come overnight. 

McLaren confirmed yesterday that racing director Eric Boullier had resigned from his position after four years in the role, with a new management structure being announced ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Brown staying 'realistic' over McLaren F1 recovery timescale

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is remaining realistic about the timescale before the team's recovery in Formula 1, believing it will be somewhere between two and 10 years before it can fight for Formula 1 world championships again, saying the fix will not come overnight. 

McLaren confirmed yesterday that racing director Eric Boullier had resigned from his position after four years in the role, with a new management structure being announced ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Simon Roberts will oversee the technical team in his role as McLaren Racing chief operating officer, while Andrea Stella has been promoted to performance director. Team advisor Gil de Ferran has now been appointed to the position of sporting director.

McLaren has been bold in its predictions in the past regarding its form, and had hoped to return to the front of the field after making the switch to Renault power units for the 2018 season, only for the team to remain in F1's midfield.

Speaking on Thursday following the changes to the team's management, Brown stressed that this marked the start of a new chapter for McLaren, setting his sights on the long-term before it could fight at the front of the pack once again.

"This is a start of a journey. We didn’t get here overnight, and I don’t think we’re going to fix this overnight," Brown said.

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"I think we’re going to have some good weekends ahead, I think we’re going to have some bad weekends ahead. We’re not going to quit. We’re extremely motivated. I think we have outstanding talent within McLaren. I think our issues are more structural, organisation, communication, I think we’re too slow to react. I think we can communicate better. I think we need to simplify in order to speed up the process in which we make decisions.

"My job in leading the Formula 1 team is ultimately to put that pace into the organisation, give the direction, get the right leadership in place, and get on with getting back to where everyone in this room I think recognises McLaren should be."

Asked to put a timescale on when McLaren could hope to return towards the head of the field, Brown said it would be "years" before the team could realistically expect to contend for titles again.

"I don’t know if that’s two or 10 [years], or somewhere inbetween. Probably more like somewhere inbetween, but I don’t want to get into predictions," Brown said.

"I think we have to be very realistic and honest with ourself, with our fans, with you, to say that this is going to be a journey. I think everyone needs to recognise that. I think we had a good finish in the last race relative to where we started, but we were uncompetitive.

"Not much has changed since last race, so I think everyone needs to not starting having too high expectations, ourself included, at Silverstone, because all that has really happened is five or six days have gone by."

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