Brown: McLaren wants to beat Merc, not copy them

It is all good and well copying the Mercedes design as Racing Point has done but Zak Brown feels that’s not the way to go about beating Mercedes to the World titles.

Racing Point revealed a pink Mercedes when the team debuted the RP20.

The car is, at least according to Racing Point, all their own design, however, it sports a lot of the same features as the Mercedes cars of 2019 and 2020.

It is also powered by Mercedes, which McLaren will be too come 2021.

But don’t expect the Woking team to start copying the Mercedes design as Brown says that’s no way to go about beating them.

“The Racing Point is, of course, a good car, but that makes sense because it is the Mercedes of last year,” he told GPBlog.

“It all depends on what your ambitions are.

“If you want to be at the top of midfield quickly, it is, of course, a smart way, but if you want to become champion like us, then you have to do something else.

“If you keep copying Mercedes you are lagging behind.

“We want to be better than Mercedes and for that, we have to keep improving ourselves.”

The CEO was behind McLaren’s design to swap from Renault power back to Mercedes engines from next year onwards.

Brown, though, concedes McLaren won’t be challenging Mercedes for the titles in their first year back together but that is the long-term goal.

“Not immediately in 2021 of course, but we assume that we can beat Mercedes in the long term. We are now working so hard in the factory for that,” he said.

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