McLaren’s Zak Brown asks F1 to ‘relax regulations’

McLaren had a bittersweet 2023 season, equalling their 2022 result of fourth despite a major comeback from the start of the season.

McLaren’s Zak Brown asks F1 to ‘relax regulations’

Mclaren F1 CEO Zak Brown (Via IMAGO)

Formula 1 has been stringently dependent on regulations in recent years, with more competitiveness in mind. However, these strict regulations can be a double-edged blade, as a team adapts to the regulations better than others, dominance like Red Bull in 2023 occurs, which is detrimental to the spirit of competitiveness.

McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown, who recently was the only team boss to back Andretti’s F1 bid, has an interesting take on the situation. The American claims that the introduction of a budget cap to the sport has made regulations largely redundant. Zak Brown said that more creative cars can be harbored with looser regulations, with competitiveness governed by the spending limit that is already in place.

Since we’ve had the budget cap, I’d like to see the regulations open up and not be so restrictive because we have the cap. I think the cap kind of stops people from overspending, so therefore, if you want to see a lot of different cars, open up the regulations, in general.
Zak Brown told the Track Limits podcast (H&T:WTF1)
YouTube video

McLaren had a huge comeback in 2023, going from the back of the field to competing for podiums regularly. However, even this wasn’t enough to combat the dominant Red Bull, who have been getting increasingly hard to beat since they perfectly morphed into the 2022 regulations.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown admits sacking Daniel Ricciardo was not easy

Daniel Ricciardo had a promising career after winning seven races with Red Bull, having beaten his insanely talented teammate Max Verstappen twice in the standings. However, everything changed when the Australian left Red Bull for Renault due to issues with Verstappen, and again departing for McLaren.

Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo

Ricciardo partnered Lando Norris at McLaren but could come nowhere close to his younger teammate in terms of performance. Unable to adapt to the car appropriately, the multiple race winner was sacked prematurely in 2022 due to lack of performance, despite one win at Monza in 2021. McLaren CEO has come out and said that letting go of the charismatic Australian was difficult, as the team’s interests just did not align with his results.

Breaking up with Daniel was very difficult. You know, love Daniel. Great guy. It just didn’t work out, but that wasn’t the master plan in the end, so that was a very difficult situation.
Zak Brown said as reported by WTF1

Daniel Ricciardo is currently trying to redeem himself, going back to the Red Bull family that he knows so well. Driving with AlphaTauri in 2024 alongside Yuki Tsunoda, Ricciardo hopes to prove himself sufficiently to earn the 2025 Red Bull seat for another shot with the champion team.

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