McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown says the Woking-based outfit is growing stronger with each passing season but insists it's still "catching up" with F1's top teams in terms of infrastructure.
From its position at the low end of the grid a few years ago when it was but a dark shadow of its former prestigious self, weighed down by its Honda engine supplier and a weak engineering structure, McLaren has since extricated itself from the doldrums, thanks to many structural and operational changes commanded by Brown.
Last year in Monza, the papaya squad returned to the winner's circle for the first time since Brazil 2012 courtesy of Daniel Ricciardo.
It was a sensational win for the team but one that represented just another step up the ladder in the grand scheme of McLaren's plans.
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Guided by its talented top brass – Brown and team boss Andreas Seidl – and by a quality rostrum of executioners and engineers, Operations Director Piers Thynne, Technical Director James Key and Racing Director Andrea Stella, not to mention its equally gifted duo of drivers, McLaren continues its forward march although the final pieces of the puzzle remain to be put in place.
"We have all the people that we need," said Brown at the launch of McLaren's new MCL36 on Friday.
"Andreas has worked hard to mould the team in a way that he sees it as a championship-calibre talent of people but we have to recognise and be realistic that we are still catching up on some of the technology infrastructure that we’re behind on.
"The wind tunnel is under construction, things like simulator, too. We have everything here or on order and being built."
©McLaren
Brown's management style isn't to boast about the future while throwing hard cash around in the present. The American says McLaren is backing up its ambitions with a diligent, "incremental" approach, one day at a time, and it's doing it on a sound financial basis.
"I think what you’re seeing is we are going from strength to strength to strength: pit stops are better, reliability last year, more points per race, all the incremental steps that we need to take to become a more competitive racing team under Andreas and James and the team – that’s happening," he added.
"It’s quite exciting. It’s going to be the team of people which will ultimately get us back to the front.
"But we still have a little bit of a way to go so I think we need to caution against all things are equal sitting here today as we still have some areas of disadvantage."
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