Brown: McLaren 'very bullish' about 2017 gains

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McLaren executive director Zak Brown says the team is "feeling very bullish" about the improvement it expects to make with its 2017 car.

Next season sees new aerodynamic regulations introduced - including wider tyres - which are aimed at reducing lap times by around five seconds, using the Circuit de Catalunya as a benchmark. McLaren was one of the teams keen to see such a change and Brown says the atmosphere within the factory is one of optimism as development of its new car continues.

"Everyone is very excited," Brown told Sky Sports. "I've been walked through the car in detail, and now seen all the reports from this year's car and where they have found areas of improvement, so everyone is feeling very bullish going into next year."

And Brown believes McLaren and Honda's progress between seasons last year gives the team a good example of the sort of improvement it should be trying to make in order to close the gap to the front of the grid.

"[The team] showed great progress this year. The last couple of years have been difficult, but this year they had a good race car. Honda is putting out some good power and if we can make the same leap from 2015 to 2016 to '16 to '17, we are well on our way."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.