McLaren CEO Zak Brown has come forward to defend the team's innovative 'mini-DRS' rear wing amidst a storm of criticism from rival teams. The Woking-based squad has made a remarkable turnaround in the 2024 season, now leading the Constructors' standings by 41 points with six rounds remaining. McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have each claimed victory in three of the last four races.
The controversy centers on claims from rival teams that McLaren's rear wing displayed excessive flex on Baku’s lengthy start/finish straight, supposedly bending the regulations by providing undue drag reduction. Despite these accusations, Brown has assured that the wing design complies with technical regulations, stating to The Times:
“Whoever’s winning, everyone’s always staring at the car to understand what they’re doing.
“It’s totally natural that people are staring at our car at the moment and then coming to conclusions, a lot of them incorrectly.
“We’ve passed every single test.
“We offered to make a small modification, just because we don’t think it will make much of a difference and there’s a lot of noise around it — so to demonstrate that there’s no secret sauce, we were like, ‘Well, we’ll modify it slightly.’”
McLaren's remarkable performance shift has put the heat on Red Bull and reigning champion Max Verstappen, who has not secured a victory in the past eight races. Meanwhile, Norris has narrowed the gap in the Drivers' standings to 52 points behind Verstappen.
Brown continued:
“They [rivals] wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they weren’t making noise.
“It’s a compliment that people are looking at our car and challenging. We’ve got good innovation on our car.”
Norris also commented on the ‘mini-DRS’, prior to the team confirming they would change it. He explained:
“Everything's been tested, everything's legal,” he added. “We're doing what we can, that's what Formula 1 is for – exploring everything within the rules.
“We've cleared all the tests and everything and FIA are happy.
“So now I'm proud, I'm happy with what the team are doing – they're pushing the limits and that's what you've got to do if you want to fight at the top and fight against people who are also known for doing such things and exploring every area possible.
“Now I'm more proud of the team for pushing every single area that we can.
“We've not been in situations where we could do that in the past but now we're in that position so I'm very happy.
“It's actually a cool thing to see, I think, in my opinion.
“There's so many rules, there's so many things in place, but teams, including us, are finding ways to just explore and look at different things that other people have not thought of.
“As much as you might see us doing it, there's plenty of other teams doing it that you just don't see on TV.
“Maybe you've not led a race and you don't see on certain cameras and stuff, but it's not just us.
“It's a big game, it's a big race out there, but for my side of the heart, I'm very happy with what McLaren have done.”
