Zak Brown: McLaren "on the road to recovery"

McLaren's CEO Zak Brown is confident the team are "on the road to recovery" during the current winter break. The 2018 season failed to end the chapter of disappointing results for the Woking-based team, but Brown believes development and team cohesion are on track.

Without the Honda engine, McLaren expected to shoot straight back up the constructor's championship, but this wasn't to be with a terminal problem inside the car. The positive vibes are back inside the camp, however, and Brown sheds light on what's happening.

“I think we’re now on the road to recovery as I tell the men and women at McLaren, it’s going to feel good before it looks good,” he said in an interview with Formula 1.

“Meaning that they’re doing some great work now, but until you see the race car on the track, so I think it kind of feels good inside McLaren. Development is going well, teamwork, collaboration, communication, responsibilities, all those things that we fell short of are now going well."

Despite feeling confident, the American is holding any celebrations until the car goes out on track in February. Testing gets underway on February 19th with the first test lasting four days. The second four-day test starts on the 26th of February before the green lights go out in Melbourne on the 17th of March.

“But until that race car hits the track that’s the ultimate measurement, and that’s when everyone will be able to visibly see what type of improvement over the winter," Brown added.