Credits: IMAGO / PanoramiC

McLaren were a few tenths off Red Bull’s pace at the start of the season. However, with an aggressive upgrade plan, the Papaya team has overtaken Red Bull, be it by a slender margin. As a result, Lando Norris is breathing down Max Verstappen’s neck for a championship fight. Amid this, McLaren comes out with a mantra in the bid to fight to Red Bull.

“We’re prepared to go neck and neck”, said Zak Brown as per Motorsport. Explaining McLaren’s racing mantra, he added the five-worded message, “Dirty is not the way”. Brown spoke about how Red Bull races, “They sometimes seem to have a mentality that they want to win at all costs. That’s not how we race, but we do think we can compete with them in our own way.”

Brown’s words seemingly targeted Verstappen as the wounds of the Austrian GP clash are still fresh. The Dutchman has an image of being overly aggressive and not leaving enough room for his rivals. It was seen during the 2021 championship fight with Lewis Hamilton and now with Norris in Austria.

It’s after more than a decade that McLaren will be fighting for the championship and the first time ever against Verstappen. Both Ferrari [in 2022] and Mercedes [in 2021] had the chance to go against Verstappen in a title fight and came second best. It’s known that Hamilton treats Verstappen differently on track and gives him a bit more space than others.

Hopefully, McLaren have the pace to take the wins by creating a performance gap. However, if there’s a repeat of Austria 2024 where Norris and Verstappen are neck and neck, it’s important to push the elbows out a little bit to get the mental and on-track advantage.

Zak Brown sets straight expectations McLaren’s championship fight 

McLaren is 78 points behind Red Bull in the championship with 12 races still left on the calendar. Verstappen has been pulling Red Bull while Sergio Perez’s poor performance has handicapped the Milton Keynes team. On the other hand, McLaren have scored big points with both its drivers.

According to Racing News 365, Zak Brown said, “I don’t know if I would describe our chance at winning the constructors’ strong. But I think there’s clearly a chance there if we continue with the points we’ve been picking up the last five, six races, then we would close that gap by the end of the year”.

The problem for McLaren is that Mercedes have also found pace. If they continue to win races, McLaren will score relatively fewer points to close the gap to Red Bull. Also, the Milton Keynes outfit will bring a major upgrade in Hungary.

While McLaren can win the constructors, things would have to fall in favor of the Woking team.