Zak Brown admits McLaren has underperformed expectations this season but he's also confident the Woking-based team is in an uptrend although success won't return overnight.
As the second most successful team on the grid behind Ferrari, McLaren's dismal period with Honda between 2015 and 2017 put a huge scratch in a varnish that had already darkened since 2012, the year of its last Grand Prix win.
The team's switch to Renault power for this season started the process of reviving its lustre. Before the year got underway however, the most common projection by McLaren management called for its striking papaya MCL33 to snap at the heels of Red Bull, Renault's other customer team.
Needless to say, six races into the 2018 season, McLaren is nowhere near challenging the Milton Keynes squad.
"We’re too far off that, and it’s not going to happen overnight," Brown said in an interview with Formula 1's official website.
The McLaren boss nevertheless insists that significant progress is in the cards, thanks to the recent upgrade package embedded into the MCL33 in Spain.
"It worked," says Brown. "It was a definite step forward, it was good because the car was responsive, and the drivers liked it, so it was substantial.
"And there was good correlation with what we had expected from our wind tunnel research, so it gives us a better platform for the next upgrades."
From the outside, Brown is often perceived as a dilettante of sorts, a man whose marketing skills are unquestionable but whose management ability at the helm of an F1 team falls short of the stringent and demanding qualities required to tackle success at the pinnacle of motorsport.
Brown can talk the talk, but the jury is still out on whether he can walk the walk as McLaren's head man.
"I think there's a lot of jealousy in this sport," he says.
"I recognise, especially now in this role, that I'm not going to please everyone all the time and the court of public opinion is always just on the favour of us.
"I know I'm going to have 10%, 15%, 20% - pick a number - of people that are not Zak fans, but I think I've just got to do what I think's right for McLaren and let the chips fall."
And once again, Brown pleads for patience.
"I know we're under pressure, I know I'm under pressure," he adds.
"Probably, if there's a frustrating thing - and you know because you know racing - it's that people don't understand just how long these things take.
"Right now, we just have to be head down, doing the hard work, focused, and with a clear direction."
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