McLaren CEO Zak Brown announced “fun stuff” coming for the team at Monza, including a significant setup change this weekend.
The Italian Grand Prix will see teams running their lowest downforce settings of the season, with Monza recording the highest average speeds on the calendar – a contrast to the specifications teams ran at Zandvoort last time out.
McLaren boss announces “funny things” in Monza
McLaren was able to reduce Max Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship and Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ championship after Lando Norris dominated the Dutch Grand Prix to win by 22.8 seconds on Sunday.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted that McLaren is currently the “benchmark” in Formula 1 and Norris himself confirmed that his team has “100 percent” the best car on the grid.
With the cars set to be significantly changed for the weekend, regardless of any additional upgrades, and fitted with low-downforce wings at Monza, the McLaren CEO believes Red Bull will pose a threat this weekend.
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“I think that’s hard to say,” Brown replied to Sky F1 when asked if he was confident that McLaren would have the fastest car on every racetrack.
“I think we clearly have a very fast car. For Monza we are having even more fun because it is obviously a different type of track.
“Here (Zandvoort) there is quite a lot of downforce, (in Monza) there is very little downforce.”
“I think we will be ready for Monza, but let’s see. The Red Bull was very fast in fast sections, so I think they will be fast there too.”
In the drivers’ championship, Verstappen is currently 70 points ahead of Norris, while McLaren has reduced the gap to Red Bull in the constructors’ championship to 30 points ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
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