Zak Brown on how the team has changed over the past ten years

      Zak Brown joined McLaren nearly ten years ago, taking the position of CEO of McLaren Technology Group at the end of 2016, and a year and a half later he was appointed CEO of McLaren Racing. At that time, the once-glorious team was in a very difficult position, enough to recall that the 2015 season ended in second-to-last place in the Constructors' Championship. However, over the past decade under Brown's leadership, the racing division of the Woking-based company and its Formula 1 team have returned to championship level. In 2024, the Constructors' Cup was won, the team repeated this achievement last year, and Lando Norris won his first title, although for a long time it seemed that the main contender for the championship was not him, but his teammate, Oscar Piastri. Zak Brown: "I remember my first day at McLaren. The atmosphere was gloomy, it was evident in everything – from the car's livery, which was dominated by black and dark gray colors, to the walls. Everything felt cold, and it couldn't be called a joyful atmosphere. The team's partners were dissatisfied, the same mood was shared by the drivers and the overwhelming majority of the staff. Various theories were put forward that all of this was the result of some conspiracy. I believe our team has changed significantly now – it is full of strength and energy. McLaren has always had many very talented people, and it was just necessary to create conditions for these talents to flourish, to motivate people, and then they began to enjoy their work again. Motorsport is our profession. Winning is always more fun than losing, but in any case, we have a very interesting job. Overall, it was important to create an environment where everyone would work together, so that it would truly be a common cause – the work culture should be just that. When I came to McLaren, there was no unity; there was "us and them": management, the racing team, the commercial department – all existed separately. And now it is very nice to see that when we, for example, try to reduce the weight of the car, start experimenting with the material used for its bodywork, even though all this gives only a small effect, even our marketing department feels joyful excitement because its employees also feel that they are contributing and participating in the work to increase the car's speed. And when we win, the finance department knows it played its important role – the examples can go on. When you have 1,400 people in the company, and although not all of them work in Formula 1, most do, and when all these people work in the same direction and understand how important their role is, it creates a wonderful atmosphere in the team. It would be naive of me to say that there is no element of politics in this, but I would say that its influence is quite insignificant."