The Woking-based squad was one of the surprises of 2023, as a mid-season revamp of its MCL-60 helped catapult Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri near the front of the field as they regularly battled for podium finishes.
The leap came off the back of a management overhaul from the previous winter, with Andrea Stella taking charge as team principal following the departure of Andreas Seidl to Sauber.
But Brown, who helped oversee the changes at the top of McLaren, says the roots of the successful turnaround can be traced back to the previous season – and especially mid-season car improvements at Paul Ricard not delivering.
“For me, the big moment was the French Grand Prix [in 2022] when we were late with our upgrades and they were ineffective,” said Brown in an exclusive interview with Autosport.
“The reaction from the leadership was not the reaction I would have expected. That was also at the same time when you start to develop [the following season's] car.
“So that was the big moment for me, and obviously we made the changes at the end of the year.
“I asked Andrea Stella to take a look at what is going on and he rang the bell saying: ‘let’s change this, change some people, hire some people,’ and that is when the development started ultimately.”
Source: Autosport