Brown: We were nowhere, now we're back in the game

McLaren had a dismal start to their 2023 Formula 1 season, with an uncompetitive car that was supposed to celebrate their 60th anniversary, carrying the MCL60 moniker.

They also had to deal with major changes as Andreas Seidl quit his job as Team Principal to join the growing Audi/Sauber F1 project replaced by Andrea Stella who has been with the team since 2015. That was followed by a major technical shakeup were Technical Director James Key was shown the door of Woking as a consequence of the MCL60's shortcomings.

But despite the team's prospects being bleak for rest of the season, they brought a major upgrade to their MCL60 in Austria which saw a competitive Norris finish fourth, only to finish second at his and the team's home race in Silverstone, while Piastri just lost out on third due to an untimely Safety Car.

Brown, who announced a five-year-plan following the changes to the technical department, was clearly on top of the world after McLaren's strong Silverstone result.

He told Sky Sports F1: "Given how we started the year in Bahrain and Saudi, where we were nowhere, to be on the podium, to lead the race and be there on pure pace, having two cars there...

"It’s unfortunate, I feel bad for Oscar, he deserved to be third, but what incredible work all the men and women at McLaren have done," he added.

Norris was under four second behind British Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen at the flag, the smallest win margin the Dutchman has had this season, with Brown noting that he felt the Red Bull ace is "getting less further ahead", as several teams are now fighting for the second-best position.

"I think this shows just how healthy the sport is, how great the competition is, that we’re now coming into each weekend and there’s someone at the front you weren’t expecting, someone at the back you weren’t expecting," the American explained.

Despite beating Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Ferrari at Silverstone, Brown remained grounded when discussing his team's second-best status; he said: "I think it’s a little early to be that bold. I think what we are now is we’re back in the game.

"I’m sure tracks will suit different cars in different ways, plus everyone’s continuing to bring upgrades, so you can see when you put a lot of great, hard work in and it works, the leap forward you can take.

"As far as we know, someone else might do that the next race, so we’ve got to keep pushing," the McLaren CEO maintained.

As for Stella, who took over the team's hot seat at the toughest of times; Brown hailed the Italian saying: "This guy is awesome.

"The way he inherited what we had at the start of the year, recognised the challenges that we had, put in a technical restructure, promoted people from within.

"We’ve made some big hires that are joining, but they haven’t joined yet, so this is still the work of all the men and women under Andrea’s leadership.

"They put their head down, [Technical Director, Aerodynamics] Peter Prodromou in the aero department, [Deputy Technical Director, Engineering & Design] Neil Houldey, Andrea, [Chief Operating Officer] Piers Thynne back at the factory – everyone’s done an awesome job," Brown concluded.

As F1 now heads to Hungary, a track with a combination of low-speed corners, McLaren will face another test to remain competitive as they tackle a track with totally different characteristics to Silverstone.