McLaren: "Ricciardo is of that level, but we can't give him a car like that"

"That one sounds pretty likely from everything that I hear", Brown in conversation with Sky Sports refers to the presence of Mugello on the 2020 calendar. The top man thinks that the Grand Prix on the Italian circuit will be 'spectactular'. "I don't know how it will race, apparently it's very quick."

Portimao very bumpy

Mugello is probably not the only new circuit that managed to get a spot on this season's revised calendar. "Portimao in Portugal is the other one that seems to be talked about most frequently. It's a very bumpy track. I think the grand prix drivers will love driving around it, it's got a lot of elevation change", said the 48-year old American.

Next season McLaren expects a tougher year than in 2019. According to the race stable from Woking, Renault, Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, Racing Point and also Williams have all made progress during the winter months. "So I do think this year is going to be tougher than last year and I could see us being fourth, and I could see us sliding to sixth because others have challenged."

Brown has high expectations of Ricciardo

In the coming years McLaren wants to close the last gap towards Mercedes, Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. That's what it will do with Ricciardo behind the wheel. "Daniel is a championship calibre driver. I don't think we'll quite give him a championship calibre car in 2021, we're still on our road to recovery. But in 2022, we'll see what happens," Brown concluded.