Formula 1: Zak Brown delivers honest assessment of McLaren's title chances in 2022

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has said that it is not realistic to say that his team are title contenders for the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship, despite natural hopes that the new regulations are going to shake up the running order this year coming.

McLaren enjoyed a solid 2021 campaign with them finishing fourth in the Constructors’ championship, after spending much of the year battling it out with old foes Ferrari for P3 in the standings.

Of course, the two famous old teams will be wanting to challenge for race wins and championships sooner rather than later instead, and many fans of the sport would surely like to see them back involved at the very sharp end again too.

McLaren, of course, did return to the top step last year as Daniel Ricciardo led home from Lando Norris to win the Italian Grand Prix and they’ll want more of that in 2022, but Brown has moved to try and temper expectations over a title run at this embryonic stage of the sport’s new era:

“I think it’s great we won our first race [in 2021],” the McLaren CEO told Gulf Business. “We need to be careful not to raise expectations to an unrealistic level.

“I don’t want to say our goal in 2022 is to win two [races] – our goal is to continue to get closer to the front of the field. Of course, we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.

“We still have technical infrastructure that we’re catching up on, most notably our windtunnel.

“I’m not going into next year [2022] thinking we’re going to be a championship contender.”

2022’s regulation changes provide stark opportunity for a team to get out in front of their competitors and McLaren will hope they’ve interpreted the rules better than anyone else.

Come mid-March, we’ll soon get a better idea of who’s done what