Zak Brown's McLaren finished fourth in 2019 (Getty)
McLaren chief Zak Brown was speaking about the chances of his team breaking into the top three this season.
The British side had a bit of a revival last season and finished fourth, their best since leaving the power of the Mercedes engines.
The time with Honda was a disaster but they made some ground with Renault last year. However, McLaren were far away from the leading trio of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Andreas Seidl had suggested that McLaren could challenge for the championship in 2023 after the new regulations are in place, and Brown seems to be backing his team principal too.
“I think that is realistic. It seems far away but I think if you are having progress annually it’ll go pretty quick and I think reality is that until the budget cap comes in and we’re all playing with the same sized bat which starts in 2021 really means it’s not getting backed till 2022 and 2023 is right around the corner.”
Brown added that McLaren needed to continue improving but third place was out of reach.
“I think we have to just keep improving, closing the gap. I think third place is probably realistically out of reach this year.
“Never say never, and we are certainly going to try but the gap is pretty big and let’s see what happens over the next couple of years.”
Although McLaren easily won the battle for the best of the rest, the chief executive didn’t think it would be that easy.
Brown claimed that Renault pushed them all the way and they have a couple of quality racers in Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo.
The other teams such as Toro Rosso (Alpha Centauri), Alfa Romeo and even Haas looked good in patches last season.
However, McLaren were the most consistent and it will be interesting to see how much they have improved this season.
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