McLaren CEO Zak Brown is hopeful his team can become “an irritant” to its rivals for the remainder of the F1 season.

Following a slow start to the campaign due to McLaren falling behind with its development programme, steps are finally being taken to address the matter.

Upgrades have been rolled out in both Austria last weekend, and for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, although Lando Norris is one step ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Despite Piastri only possessing the updates on his MCL60 that were present on Norris’ car in Austria, with the latter moving on to phase two at Silverstone, the Australian was quicker in Friday practice ahead of the Briton.

Brown, though, is eager “to keep our expectations in check” following a suggestion that expectations are growing inside McLaren.

“Austria was definitely a nice step forward,” said Brown given Norris qualified and finished fourth in the grand prix at Spielberg. “Of course, no one is standing still. It’s extremely close.

“It was good to get the upgrades on Oscar’s car this weekend, so let’s see how we go, but it is definitely a step forward and gives us some nice momentum.”

Given Brown’s frustration in pre-season in announcing McLaren was far behind its schedule, the fact the developments on the car are slowly bearing fruit under the watch of new team principal Andrea Stella is at least a relief.

“I think Andrea and all the men and women at McLaren have done a great job improving the car,” assessed Brown.

“So it definitely is a step forward, a momentum builder, and I think is a nod to the work that Andrea and all the team have done to restructure and go about the development of the car.

“So I kind of feel like our season started in Austria.”

Brown is now hopeful both cars will reach the top-10 shoot-out in qualifying for the British GP.

As for beyond, he added: “You know, the top four teams still have fantastic pace.

“But we’d like to be an irritant over the course of the season. I feel like we’re in the game now.”