Brown adamant Honda split was still the best choice for McLaren

Zak Brown, McLaren's CEO, is still certain the choice to split with Honda was the correct decision despite Red Bull claiming they'll be title contenders next season. Meanwhile, McLaren looks ahead to next season with optimism and insist their main challenge is to get "a better race car on the track".

“Honda, of course, continue to develop and do an excellent job. That doesn’t surprise us. I’m glad they’re still in the sport because I think that’s something that was being discussed by them internally," Brown said in an interview on Crash.

“Renault ended the season with I think four or five podiums, won some races, so we are confident we made the right decision for our long-term future. To get a better race car on the track is the challenge that we have ahead of us.”

McLaren was expected to turn their fortunes around in 2018, but it wasn't to be. A fundamental problem on the chassis of the car prevented any chances of recovery and required a full rebuild. 

Brown goes on to talk about his proposed five-year plan to get McLaren back onto the top step of the podium. He remains desperate for Liberty Media to introduce the proposed budget cap in order to create a level playing field.

“I think it’s critical that Liberty makes the changes to the sport that we discussed earlier, because right now, the way the sport is going, it’s difficult for more than two or three teams to compete for the championship," Brown said.

“I think there are things that are out of our control, but hopefully we can influence that need to change for multiple teams to be able to win races and compete for the championship. We have laid out a journey and investment, a road to recovery that sees us getting back to the front of the grid in that timeline."

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