It’s fair to say that McLaren are excited for the new 2018 Formula One World Championship.
Everyone, with the possible exception of their rivals are hoping for a McLaren revival in 2018.
After some desperate years partnering Honda, McLaren could be set for a big leap in results this season.
They have ditched the Japanese manufacturer for 2018 and have switched to Renault power-units.
Renault, whilst concentrating on their own works team, have provided an engine to Red Bull Racing that saw them regularly score podiums and take five Grand Prix victories in the past two seasons.
McLaren are hopeful that they can enjoy some similar success, especially if their chassis can be a match for Red Bull Racing.
If it can then expect Fernando Alonso to be mixing it with not only Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull, but possibly even Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari and maybe, just maybe Valterri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
‘We are trying not to make any predictions. But l do think we should be the team which has the biggest difference in grid position this year over last year,’ McLaren chief Zak Brown told Sky Sports.
‘We want to be competitive, which we haven’t been for the last three years. And being competitive means racing at the front, qualifying at the front, getting on the podiums, but we haven’t set a target what success looks like. I think we will all know when we watch the season whether McLaren was competitive.’
One of the reasons why McLaren made the ill-fated move to ditch Mercedes for Honda was the thought they couldn’t compete as a customer team against a big manufacturer.
That doesn’t appear to be the train of thought now.
‘We are very happy with the collaboration and the working relationship, We feel we have total parity with Red Bull and the works team, and that Renault really want to do business with McLaren. We are comfortable they are going to give us everything they have got.’
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