Brown: We're trying to delay the day when we can no longer win.

      Zak Brown, formerly a professional racer who once competed on both sides of the Atlantic, ended that part of his motorsport career a quarter of a century ago, although he still races historic cars.

      But he achieved greater success in business, and close commercial ties to the world of Formula 1 allowed him to become the executive director of McLaren Racing in 2016. At that time the once-famous team was experiencing serious difficulties; the crisis affected all areas of its activity—both sporting and commercial.

      What happened next is known to everyone: Brown gradually managed first to halt the negative processes and then to turn the situation around, and in 2024 McLaren once again, after a long hiatus, won the Constructors' Championship. This season it will repeat that success and add the drivers' championship, which will be won by one of its drivers.

      "I had no experience of running a Formula 1 team, let alone one as large as McLaren," Brown admitted in an interview with the American publication Racer during the Monterey Reunion race festival in California. "But I knew the people, because it's not about the technology, it's always about the people. And also about the overall culture of the team, the ability to work cohesively. Then the energy and passion of each person merge into a single stream.

      We know how to work together and we work truly hard and intensely. Formula 1 is a sport, so, on the one hand, we compete with each other; on the other, we are haunted by the memory of the times when we couldn't contend for wins. That is what motivates us every day, pushes us in a completely crazy way, and we want to postpone as long as possible the day when we can no longer win qualifying sessions and races.

      I hope, when that day comes—and it inevitably will, that's the reality of sport—that we'll move from first to second, rather than drop straight down to tenth. And we'll also hope we won't get stuck in second for long.

      But the level of competition in Formula 1 is such that even the worst team in the championship is actually a great racing team, and I tell everyone that.

      Now we are aiming to achieve the same kind of success in IndyCar with our Arrow McLaren team. There too we are betting on team spirit, on people, on professional camaraderie, trying to make the team stronger, although it was already strong before we took it on—that's precisely why we acquired it. We recently had a housewarming, moved to a new base, and all of this inspires me greatly.

      We are gradually moving up to a higher level, Pato O'Ward is in second place in the championship, and our drivers could finish the season in second or third places, maybe fourth, but I like that Christian Lundgaard has also started winning races. Overall, I'm confident that this team is on the right track too."

      This year McLaren Racing announced its intention to return to the top category of endurance racing and to build its own hypercar. McLaren remains the only team in motorsport history to have won the "Triple Crown," i.e., to have won Monaco, the Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

      "But all of that was in different years, and now I intend to try to win all three of those races in the same year!" Brown added, cheerfully.