The harsh reality is that McLaren has not met its Formula 1 development targets. McLaren CEO Zak Brown himself has admitted that his team has not met its own development targets this winter and that the pace will have to be stepped up.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has admitted that his team may not have met its development targets for the 2023 MCL60 season.

After the first two days of winter testing in Bahrain, McLaren is keeping a low profile with its MCL60, as a few “minor” issues disrupted the team’s first day of work on Thursday.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown described the concerns as “the usual testing bugs”, but admits there are deeper issues with the MCL60’s pace: “It’s difficult to know [where we are] until we start,” said Brown.

Deeper issues with McLaren MCL60

“We had already set ourselves development targets, which we didn’t meet. We thought it best to be honest about that. But like everyone else, we have a lot of development coming up, so we’re encouraged by what we’re seeing.” says Brown,

“I think we’ll go into the first race off our planned targets and it’s hard to know exactly what that means in terms of grid position.”

“Ultimately we will have our data engineers telling us at the end of practice what they think the pecking order is.”

“Having said that, you can’t control what other people do so you have to focus on yourself and not spend too much time thinking about what the grid will look like. You have to stay focused on your own team, that’s the only thing you can control.”

Hope for improvement

Despite his concerns about the MCL60’s pace at this stage, Brown is hopeful that McLaren will still be able to achieve its goal of securing the fourth place currently held by Alpine.

“We want to be in the top four by the end of the year. Last year was a bit disappointing,” adds the American.

“Our aspirations are to get back to the front. It will take a little bit longer, but we have all the technology and infrastructure that is underway or going to be completed this year. We have developments coming up, but so does every other team in Formula 1, so we need to pick up the pace.”

MORE F1 NEWS: Gene Haas destroys Schumacher