McLaren missed development targets, braced for slow start to Formula One season

SAKHIR, Bahrain — McLaren looks set for another tough start to a Formula One season after missing car development targets over the winter.

McLaren started 2022 on the back foot after encountering brake issues in the Bahrain preseason test and has had a quiet start to the same test this year, which runs until Saturday.

At the launch of its new car the team admitted it was not entirely happy with the launch specification design and CEO Zak Brown has said he is braced for the team being off its target in the competitive order when the season starts in Bahrain on March 5.

When asked where he anticipated McLaren would start the year, Brown said: “It’s hard to know until we get going. We already set some goals for development, which we didn’t hit.

“We felt it was better to be honest about that. Like everyone we have a lot of development coming so we are encouraged by what we see around the corner. I think we will be going into the first race off our projected targets and it’s hard to know exactly that means we will be on the grid.”

On how testing itself has gone, Brown said: “We had some teething problems yesterday, we had Oscar doing most of the heavy lifting in the morning getting the car dialed in. Nothing alarming, just usual testing bugs if you like. Today Lando was focused on longer runs so we’re still understanding the car and have a lot of testing ajhead of us, relatively speaking. Then we’ll get focused on race set up.”

Brown said it is too early to tell how McLaren’s missed targets will affect its position in the competitive order come next week’s race in Bahrain.

“Ultimately you have your data engineers who will tell you at the end of the test what they think the pecking order is. That being said, you can’t control what anyone does but yourself, so to spend too much time thinking about what the grid looks like … really you need to spend all your time on your own team as that’s the only thing you can control.”

McLaren is completing its new windtunnel later this year and Brown has said he wants the team to be back in the title hunt by 2025, but the short-term ambitions are to reverse what happened last year when it dropped behind Alpine in the race for fourth.

“We want to be in the top four by the end of the year,” Brown said. “Last year was a bit disappoiting. Our aspirations are to get back to the front. That will take a little bit more time, we’ve got all the technology and infrastructure that’s either in or going to be completed this year, so that’s…