Ross Brawn is tipping a resurgent McLaren to take the fight to dominant Red Bull and triple world champion Max Verstappen next season.
Brawn knows all about Formula One domination, having worked with Michael Schumacher through a golden period at Ferrari and then winning titles with his own eponymous team in 2009 before getting Mercedes started on the road to unprecedented success.
Speaking ahead of the British launch on Wednesday of the four-part series ‘Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story’ on Disney+, the 68-year-old former F1 managing director and ex-Ferrari technical director saw McLaren as a team to watch.
“They’ve clearly got a much stronger organisation now. Hats off to (team principal) Andrea Stella. He was one of my engineers at Ferrari. And I guess you don’t see these little tiger cubs growing up to be big tigers,” he said.
“I’m really pleased how well he’s doing and he seems to have galvanised the organisation. So, I think with that improvement going into next season they can be a real threat.
“They’ve got fantastic drivers as well, pushing each other very hard.”
Britain’s Lando Norris has finished second six times in 20 races while Australian rookie teammate Oscar Piastri won the Qatar Saturday sprint and finished second to Verstappen in the Sunday grand prix with Norris third.
After failing to score in their first two races of the campaign, McLaren have staged an impressive recovery and are now fourth overall.
Brawn was also optimistic Ferrari would improve under Fred Vasseur’s guidance but recognised Red Bull would not be standing still and had the added benefit of being able to switch attention early to next year’s car.
Red Bull have so far won 19 of 20 races, with Verstappen triumphant 17 times – a record for a single season that he can extend in Las Vegas this weekend – and teammate Sergio Perez twice.
“It’s been a bit frustrating. I think sometimes when you get a team dominating you’d hope that both drivers would be fighting each other and that hasn’t happened with Red Bull, which is a shame,” said Brawn.
The public wasn’t allowed to watch Charles Leclerc’s practice session in the wee hours of Friday morning, but it certainly took note of the Ferrari driver being the fastest around the Las Vegas Grand Prix’s 3.8-mile track.\
Max Verstappen remains the -275 favourite by BetMGM to win Saturday night’s race, but the dominating Red Bull star’s odds have shifted from opening at -350.
Meanwhile, Leclerc has moved from +2200 to +500.
After the first practice session was abandoned due to work on a loose manhole cover, the grid was forced to wait two and a half hours in the early morning local time before taking the track for an extended 90-minute session.
Leclerc then turned in a time of 1 minute, 35.265 seconds.
That was more than a half-second faster than teammate Carlos Sainz, who received a 10-spot grid penalty for Saturday’s race after his car was damaged by the loose manhole cover.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three fastest times.
“It looks good for now. I like the track, it’s fun to drive,” Leclerc said. “I always liked street tracks but this one is a good one.
“We look quite strong for now. It’s difficult to understand exactly where we are in race pace, but in quali pace we seem strong. We still have to work and try to do a step forward for tomorrow, but it’s a good start.”
Verstappen, who has won 17 of the first 20 races to secure his third consecutive world championship, was sixth-fastest, behind Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
While Verstappen has been backed by the most money with 34.5 per cent at BetMGM, McLaren’s Lando Norris has drawn the most total bets at 15.9 per cent.
That makes Norris the book’s biggest liability this week, ahead of American Logan Sargeant, who has been backed by 0.7 per cent of the money at +150000 longshot odds.
With Verstappen the heavy favourite, sportsbooks are being creative with the props they are offering.
That includes BetMGM, where a prop for any driver other than Verstappen taking the checkered flag is +190.
Leclerc is being offered at -150 to finish in the top-3, while AlphaTauri’s popular driver Daniel Ricciardo is +200 to earn at least a point with a top-10 finish.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton or Mercedes teammate George Russell winning the race is being offered at +1200.
“Race weekend in Las Vegas has the potential to shatter every company record for the sport,” BetMGM chief revenue officer Matt Prevost said.
“Popularity for automotive sports in the US continues to grow and the activity we’re already seeing around this event is remarkable.”
Lewis Hamilton praised race organisers for fixing the Las Vegas Grand Prix track in time to allow for an extended second practice session early Sunday morning, and said the brand new track is extremely fast.
The first practice session was canceled after Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz hit a loose manhole cover. After a delay of more than two hours, the drivers were able to return to the track for an extended 90-minute window.
“We’re traveling at some serious speeds out there,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after posting the ninth-fastest time of the day. “It’s incredibly fast and it’s a lot of fun – I had so much fun today.
“I’m so glad we did get to run again. They did a great job to fix it and it was an interesting session.”
Hamilton has been one of the drivers to embrace the unique structure of the Las Vegas event. While he has raised concerns about the additional commitments being asked of drivers, the seven-time world champion has said that he believes Las Vegas is a good addition for F1 and is adjusting to the late starting time for on-track events.
“I had a blast,” he said of the practice sessions. “Everyone’s struggling with jet lag and all that stuff and I feel great.”
Mercedes teammate George Russell was also complimentary of the track after posting the 12th-fastest time during FP2.
“It’s a very fast circuit, the highest top speeds of the year probably, and obviously racing at night is pretty spectacular,”he said. “I think it is going to be an interesting race weekend.”
The third practice session is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. local time (PT) on Friday night.
“Every lap you do you are learning. You are all going faster, the track is getting faster, your braking points are changing,” Russell said.
“It’s tricky when you are going 230mph into those braking zones, picking your braking point with very little downforce on the car. It was good fun out there.”
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the top three fastest times.
“It looks good for now. I like the track, it’s fun to drive,” Leclerc said. “I always liked street tracks but this one is a good one.
“We look quite strong for now. It’s difficult to understand exactly where we are in race pace, but in quali pace we seem strong. We still have to work and try to do a step forward for tomorrow, but it’s a good start.”