Without question, 2024 has been Zak Brown's best year since becoming McLaren Racing's chief executive officer in 2018.
McLaren's win at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in early September lifted the team past Red Bull in the race for the Formula One constructors' championship. The hero of that race was Oscar Piastri, the 23-year-old Australian it lured away from Alpine.
Meanwhile, in the tussle for driver of the year, his protege, Lando Norris, is breathing down the neck of Red Bull's durable ace Max Verstappen, the man who dominated in 2022 and 2023 but hasn't won since June.
Racing aficionados are now savouring the possibility of a battle akin to 2021's Verstappen versus Lewis Hamilton clash, which was decided on the final lap of the year.
Norris, who will be 25 years old in November, finished a solid fourth in the Azerbaijan race, held in national capital Baku.
Zakary Challen Brown, the man behind McLaren Racing's turnaround, is a former racer himself who went for his first Grand Prix at age 10 and was hooked thereafter on racing. He bought his first go-kart three years later, using money gathered by selling a pair of watches he won as a prize on the Wheel Of Fortune game show.
"We're gonna try this year. We are closing the gap," Brown, 52, told me in a long conversation held on Sept 19 at the team's hotel in Singapore, Conrad Centennial. "I don't see why both our drivers won't start next season with a great shot at winning the championship. Both our drivers are statistically speaking capable of catching Max Verstappen this year. Lando, being the closer of the two, we are giving him all our support to see if he can do it."
Raised in a family of modest means, the California-born, British resident is estimated to be worth more than US$100 million (S$130 million).
Denne historien er fra September 22, 2024-utgaven av The Straits Times.
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Denne historien er fra September 22, 2024-utgaven av The Straits Times.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Norris pips Verstappen to Singapore GP pole
Lando Norris' goal of getting his first Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix title and a first for McLaren since 2009 when Lewis Hamilton claimed victory -- was given a huge boost on Sept 21, when he edged out Red Bull's Max Verstappen to secure pole position.
S'pore unis' computing enrolment surges; stiff competition for jobs
Growing pool of such graduates soon entering a rapidly changing tech industry
Survey finds improvement in graciousness among neighbours
More are open to resolving disputes directly even as many report barriers to interaction
Tears and joy as bone marrow recipients meet their donors
When Mr Lim Wee Kiat was studying at Nanyang Technological University, he decided to impress a fellow student he had a crush on in an unusual way - by signing up as a bone marrow donor at a booth set up by the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP).
NO JOB, NO EDUCATION AND NO COUNTRY
Stateless young man seeks a better future here
Child abuse cases shine light on secretive Malaysian group
Police probing cult-linked group as an organised crime ring; 155 suspects detained
Malaysian King weeps over late son in meeting with China's Xi
The Malaysian King, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, became emotional when he told Chinese President Xi Jinping about his son who died in 2015 after battling liver cancer.
Medical Mysteries Man who doesn't drink alcohol gets drunk eating carbs
It was morning when the man was pulled over by the police, who assumed he was driving under the influence.
All eyes on Iswaran's trial set to begin on Sept 24
Former minister is first political office-holder in nearly five decades to be tried in court
UN urges states to use sway over Israel, Hezbollah to avoid war
UNITED NATIONS - A top United Nations official on Sept. 20 urged all countries with influence over Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah \"to leverage it now\" to avoid an escalation of Middle East violence that she warned could dwarf the devastation seen so far.