McLaren's Zak Brown “definitely anticipating” Lewis Hamilton title challenge
McLaren boss has his say on Hamilton’s Ferrari chances
McLaren Formula 1 team boss Zak Brown says he is “definitely anticipating” Lewis Hamilton to be a title threat in his first season with Ferrari in 2025.
Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton made the bombshell announcement in the 2024 pre-season that he would be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari this year.
It’s a move that has generated a massive amount of anticipation, with many paddock voices tipping Hamilton to be a title challenger with Ferrari in 2025 - especially with the Italian team narrowly missing out on the constructors’ prize.
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Speaking ahead of the F1 75 launch event in London on Tuesday, Brown picked his favourites to battle reigning constructors’ champions McLaren and its drivers for the championship.
“Definitely anticipating Lewis being a championship contender,” he began.
“I think we and Ferrari ended last year with nothing between us. I think that will continue.
“Mercedes were very close, and they still won four, five races.
“So, I’d put them in there. And of course, Red Bull, super strong first half of the year. Little bit less strong middle of the year and then ended it very strong.
“So, I don’t think there’s going to be anything between those four teams.
“And obviously [Andrea] Kimi [Antonelli at Mercedes] and Liam [Lawson at Red Bull], Kimi being a rookie and Liam being inexperienced, I think from that constructors’ point of view will probably present a bit more of a challenge over 24 races because they’ll inevitably have some ‘rookie weekends’.
“But I think they’re both extremely quick drivers and anticipate both of them winning races.”
Lando Norris said on Tuesday that McLaren has “no excuses” not to fight for the title in 2025, though Brown has warned the competition will be stiffer than ever and predicts the possibility for eight different winners this season.
“It’s definitely the goal - we want to go for the drivers’ and the constructors’ world championship, and why not be greedy and have that be 1-2,” he said.
“We’ll let Lando and Oscar [Piastri] decide who is one and who is two. So, that’s our collective goal. I think, as the drivers just said, this season should be epic and even closer than last year.
“So, I’m anticipating eight different winners. I think last year we had seven, four different teams won, wouldn’t be surprised with how competitive is… last year every weekend while the top four teams were competitive there always seemed to be someone that was able to disrupt.
“So, I expect that to happen again. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more than four teams that won. So, I think we’re in store for an epic Formula 1 season.”
Quotes provided by Crash F1 Editor Lewis Larkam
