McLaren solve ‘back to front’ braking problem which wrecked early season races

McLaren haven’t had the start to the campaign they would have hoped for, namely due to a brake issue

McLaren haven’t had the best campaign (Getty Images)

McLaren executive technical director James Key says the team have overcome their “back-to-front” brake issue which caused them problems at the start of the season.

The team have struggled this year, particularly in Bahrain where drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris finished 14th and 15th respectively. Key has dished on what the problem was after revealing he believes McLaren now have it under control.

“A really strange phenomenon,” he said per GP Fans. I don’t think any of us have seen it before but you had to run a certain set of circumstances to see that and we did it in CFD in the end.

“Because nothing stacked up, nothing made any sense, we looked at everything that was going on and it all seemed back to front. It turns out, under those circumstances, it was. We did replicate it and that is really what led us to the design we have got now, to make sure that we completely remove that issue.

“It was a real oddball and this is really why we didn’t pick it up here so well because this track doesn’t encourage that particular set of circumstances. But Bahrain did and it really hit us in the face.”

McLaren’s season has improved, mainly through the driving of Norris with Ricciardo still struggling in the car. The team’s CEO Zak Brown has said the Australian hasn’t met the expectation set when they brought him in 2021.

“Lando definitely has an edge. Obviously we would like to see Daniel much closer to Lando and have a good intra-team battle,” said the American.

“Daniel’s just not comfortable yet with the car. We are trying everything we can – again it was a disappointing weekend. Short of kind of Monza and a few races, it’s generally not kind of met his or our expectations.

“I think all you can do is keep working hard as a team, keep communications going, keep pushing and hope whatever’s not kind of clicking at the moment clicks here shortly.”