McLaren CEO Zak Brown aimed a sly dig at Red Bull's explanation for its minor Formula 1 budget cap breach in 2021. The current F1 World Championship-winning constructor was found guilty of breaching the $145 million limit during Max Verstappen's maiden title-clinching campaign and was handed a fine and an aerodynamic testing reduction for the current season. Woking-based McLaren has undergone a large infrastructural upgrade with a new wind tunnel created on site, bringing an end to its relationship with Toyota and its facility in Cologne. Brown revealed exclusively to RacingNews365 that this was largely down to the ability to reduce wind tunnel costs for the team, given travel and renting payments would be eradicated. The team has also added talent to its engineering quota, including David Sanchez from Ferrari and Rob Marshal from Red Bull, with both set to start their roles in January. Red Bull claimed its overspending in part stemmed from its catering budget, a point Brown was quick to take aim at when asked about the sacrifices McLaren has taken in order to accommodate its operational upgrades.
Tough decisions
"First thing we did is reduced our catering bill," Brown joked when speaking to media, including RacingNews365.com . Detailing the steps taken by McLaren, Brown added: "We had some inefficiencies in our spend where we were not operating our own wind tunnel, we were renting, so that comes at a higher cost than if you are just paying your own operational expenses. "We have had to make some tough decisions, but also with some of our new technologies coming online, we are actually more financially efficient so we are able to redirect some of that inefficient spend into additional headcount."
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