McLaren has no more "big holes" to fix as it targets F1 titles - Brown

Over the winter, newly promoted team principal Andrea Stella led a thorough review of the Woking design department. It subsequently let go of technical chief James Key, restructured its leadership, and hired David Sanchez from Ferrari and Red Bull veteran engineer Rob Marshall.

With elements of that revised set-up in place, McLaren upgraded its current MCL60 from what was a backmarker car in the early races to then scoring podiums in the British and Hungarian Grands Prix plus a top-three finish in the Spa sprint immediately before the summer break.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown also signed off on the construction of a new on-site wind tunnel and simulator. Their completion, he believes, will leave the team with no more "big gaps" to fill as it targets championship success in the next couple of seasons.

Speaking exclusively to Autosport, Brown said: "I think, other than constant fine-tuning, there's not big gaps like we've had the last five years.

"Not having our own wind tunnel, having a 20-year-old simulator, being behind in CFD technology, those were big holes. Now this is going to be about fine-tuning.

"There isn't anything that we're staring at that is like, 'We need a new wind tunnel'. All that will be in place."

Brown did say, however, that the major benefits would not fully manifest themselves until 2025, with the time required for the new-look F1 team to integrate and optimise.

He continued: "Other than you're obviously always fine-tuning, we'll have everything that we need.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

"So, what we need at that point is time for it all to come together, culturally, communications. But we won't be making lots of announcements [about more upgrades].

"Then it'll just be about refining, learning, improving. But we'll have everything by January 1st in place to be a world championship team. Other than we just need some time.

He added: "We have different leadership and structure. Then we have new people coming in, which should be another contribution to performance.

"While we've got everything coming online now, like the wind tunnel, it really won't be until 2025 that everything has started from a clean sheet of paper with the new structure and people in place. Rob Marshall, David Sanchez - they don't start until January.

"Our 2024 car is already in the works with not all of our current infrastructure and not our final full team. So, it'll be 2025. But look at what we're capable of with what we have.

"I'm quite proud of everything that the team has done. So, everything that we're bringing in is additive, just more horsepower, which we should then see another step up in 2025."