F1 News
Brown: 'Prestige from third place is worth more than the money'
- GPblog.com
McLaren managed to get the necessary points in Abu Dhabi and that was ultimately enough to finish the 2020 championship in third place among the manufacturers. This is an improvement over 2019, when the team finished fourth. Ferrari, of course, has dropped significantly this year, which has been to McLaren's advantage. It also gives the team quite a bit of money, but that's not the most important thing, according to Zak Brown.
Not about money
It was exciting for a long time in the constructors' championship behind Mercedes and Red Bull Racing in place one and two respectively. Racing Point was on course to third place, but bad luck with Perez in Abu Dhabi eliminated a chance for points. What's more, the team often suffered breakdowns in 2020, which made it difficult for them.
However, the battle for places three, four and beyond was not decided until Abu Dhabi, and McLaren's financial returns are significantly higher. It can also have an effect on sponsorship bonuses, giving the team even more money. But whatever the financial benefits, that's not what McLaren sees as the most important thing.
Talking to Motorsport.com Zak Brown says: "It's sporting prestige. The money's obviously nice. But when you're on the pit wall, you're thinking about it purely from the sporting standpoint. And then you get to the office on Monday, and you think about the financial side", given that everything has only landed a little bit of course.
"The team's done an unbelievable job to do everything we've been through this year, bringing on a new investor at the weekend, and then clinching third in the championship when we had a very good car, but clearly last year's Mercedes is faster! Couldn't have wrote it better. But it's so tight. We could have been fifth this weekend and have a totally different conversation."
2021 will be tougher
Next year everything will start again from scratch and it is of course a challenge to achieve at least the same result. In spite of the prevailing euphoria, Brown tempers expectations at the same time. "I think it will be harder. I think we got to keep our feet on the ground. You've got to expect Ferrari to come back strong next year. We know they're gonna have two very strong drivers, in Carlos (Sainz) and Charles (Leclerc)."
"We've got everything we need now, especially with our new investors. Andreas (Seidl) has done an outstanding job. I think we're just getting started, but it's gonna get harder," said Zak Brown who, despite everything, would like to repeat the success of 2020 in 2021.