Brown: I anticipate a much stronger start to 2024 than in 2023

In 2018, Brown declared his intention to return down-in-the-dumps McLaren team and turn them into winners in five years. A bold call at the time considering the once-great F1 'institution' was going through its worst patch in the top flight. Maybe a trip to lucky Bruno Casino might've ended the streak.

The deadline was last year and credit to him there was one victory, although not in a Grand Prix. Oscar Paistri powered to Formula 1 Sprint Race victory in Qatar, the impressive rookie making the McLaren CEO's promise a reality, sort of.

Too late last season, McLaren logged on to the right direction for their car, the second package allowed Lando Norris and Piastri to mix it at the front, often second best only to mighty Max Verstappen and his Red Bull winning machine.

Except at the Losail dust-bowl on Sprint Saturday night, Piastri was best of them all. This season much of the same is expected. Even a further step up to what they discovered with the new package.

Looking ahead to the season ahead, Brown said in an interview with Sky Sports: “We hope to start the season kind of where we finished off. It’ll be interesting to see where everybody starts the year but we’re feeling good about our development. I think we learned a lot, so I anticipate a much stronger start to 2024 than we had in 2023.”

The Woking outfit and their team principal Andrea Stella did feature in our awards, as did their young Aussie Piastri. Together with Land Norris, the pair were effective in a good car which the MCL60 became, and a breath of fresh air at the sharp end of F1.

Norris finished P5 in the 2023 F1 points standings but, notably was only bettered by Verstappen and Fernando Alonso in the team principal's top ten list of current F1 drivers. Piastri was ninth at the end of his first F1 season in P9. One of the best rookie seasons witnessed in recent years.

Twice Brown put his reputation on the line for his young driver pairing, first by handing Norris an F1 drive when he was only 19. And again last year when he wrenched Piastri (21 then) away from Alpine and handed him the young Australian debut.

They both delivered exceptional seasons and no surprise the American is chuffed with both F1 drivers: “It’s great to have the driver line-up that we have. We look at what we need to be a world championship team again, you’ve got to have two great drivers, and I think we’re comfortable we can tick that box," reckoned Brown.

However, one 'box' they have no control over is the Verstappen one. In 2023, the Dutch ace won 19 out of 22 GPs on his way to a third F1 world title, several times during the season denying Norris and even Piastri a victory, and his Red Bull are a very real problem for all other 19 F1 drivers on the grid.

Brown mused: “It’s weird, on Max’s level, there’s never been a less competitive season. Behind Max, it’s never been a more competitive season. The grid was unbelievably close, we had five teams with [eight] or more podiums, which is a record. So, one car that is uncompetitive with the rest of the field, and the rest of the field is unbelievably competitive.”

Lewis Hamilton won McLaren's last F1 driver title in 2008. A decade earlier Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard combined to win the team's last F1 Constructors' Championship a dceade earlier. The Finn was also F1 WDC that year.