Zak Brown disappointed that the McLaren-Alonso relationship didn’t work out
Currently vying for the constructors' title with his team, the McLaren boss looked back on the difficult period his team went through when it was powered by Honda. In particular, the American regrets not having been able to give his star driver Fernando Alonso a competitive car.
The Woking team is back on top. After a very complicated start to the 2023 season where the team struggled to score points, the trend has since clearly reversed: it is now capable of playing for victories regularly thanks to its two drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who have both won their first Grand Prix this year (in Miami for the Briton, in Budapest for the Australian).
A remarkable turnaround when you consider the team’s difficulties when they were partnering with the Japanese manufacturer Honda.
A partnership with Honda that hadn’t worked at all
On January 29, 2015, McLaren unveiled its silver-colored MP4-30, marking Honda’s return to F1 with McLaren after a successful stint in the 1980s and early 1990s. With a driver lineup consisting solely of world champions, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, the British team harbors high hopes. However, things do not go as planned due to an underperforming and highly unreliable engine.
This situation deeply frustrates the drivers, especially Fernando Alonso, who considers his return to McLaren as the most disappointing period of his career. Still dreaming of a third title, Alonso eventually left the team in 2018 after four seasons without significant results. Zak Brown, his former boss at McLaren, with whom Alonso still maintains good relations, looks back on this period and his partnership with the Spanish driver.
Translate: « It’s disappointing that we didn’t have a better car when he was racing with us. It’s great to see him running, he is very intelligent. And to see him still performing at the level he is as he gets older, it’s great and he is a great friend », he revealed to DAZN Spain.
The American, who had joined McLaren as executive director in 2016 before becoming CEO 18 months later, emphasizes the talent of his former driver, whom he describes as the most complete driver he has ever worked with.
« If I set aside Lando [Norris] and Oscar [Piastri], because obviously I am biased, I would say that Fernando Alonso has a rather special talent. » The double world champion has always had the ability to extract the maximum from the car in all circumstances, even when he was fighting for points with an underperforming car at McLaren. This extraordinary speed led Alonso to make a comeback in Formula 1 in 2021 with Alpine after two years away and an amicable split with McLaren.
Currently at Aston Martin, the « Bull of Asturias » still hopes to return to victory, a reward he has not experienced since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2013, and win a world title that has eluded him since his two titles at Renault in 2005 and 2006.
