McLaren missed its 2023 season targets with a draggy launch car, which led to significant changes within the organisation led by incoming team principal Andrea Stella.
The first fruits of Stella's revamped technical structure were brought to the track in the final races before the summer break, propelling Norris to two podiums while his impressive rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri scored second in the Belgian Grand Prix's Saturday sprint.
But while Norris had been blunt over the MCL60's deficiencies before the introduction of its B-spec, and afterwards still noted it is a "pretty terrible” car to drive in low-speed corners, Brown refutes suggestions that his driver's comments had been at all demotivating for the Woking squad.
"No, we're all motivated," Brown told Motorsport.com as part of an exclusive interview.
"We kind of get happy together, we get grumpy together. So, if he's made a comment, it's consistent, it's motivating.
"We don't get down, we fight hard. I mean, if you look at how poor start the season was, that was hard.
"Meanwhile, underneath the surface we knew we were seeing great development in the wind tunnel, so it was like publicly taking a battering at the start of the year while knowing underneath things were actually going really well.
"And the team handled it really well, so we're motivated."
Source: Autosport