McLaren’s F1 team has impressed this year with the performance of its drivers and its fast car, but the team’s boss, Zak Brown, is a pretty handy driver in his own right. So who is the fastest around a wet Silverstone?
A go-kart driver since 1986, Brown has raced in Formula Ford 1600 and British Formula Three among other series. He might not be an F1 driver, but he’s no slouch. So it perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise that Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo had a hard time keeping up with their boss in this video from Sky Sports F1.
Admittedly, Brown had a bit of an advantage in his car selection, though, being behind the wheel of a McLaren 620R. Limited to just 225 examples globally, the supercar’s 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 makes 611 hp (620 PS / 456 kW) and 457 lb-ft (619 Nm) of torque. It also makes 408 lbs (185 kg) of downforce at 155 mph (250 km/h) thanks to aero hardware borrowed from the 570S GT4 race car.
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Lando Norris, meanwhile, is in the McLaren GT. Although advertised as a comfortable cruiser, it’s not exactly slow. Its twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8, which makes 611 HP (620 PS / 456 kW) and 465 pound-feet (630 Nm) of torque, propelling the car to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 3.2 seconds and onto a top speed of 203 mph (327 km/h).
Finally, Daniel Ricciardo takes the wheel of a McLaren 720S. Despite also having a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8, it’s tuned to make 710 HP (720 PS / 530 kW) and 568 lb-ft (770 Nm) of torque, allowing it do hit 62 mph in 2.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 212 mph (341 km/h), which may explain why the Australian driver says he’s scared of the car.
In the end, Brown proves too hard to beat in his race car for the road and ends up taking the checkered flag (or the purple vest) for the win. Then again, there’s always a chance Norris and Ricciardo didn’t want to upset the man who writes their pay cheques…