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Zak Brown

👤 Speaker
942 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Our employees were not happy.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

And as I say, other than that, everything was great.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Now, what was great was we have this great iconic brand that was not in a

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Good place, but sitting here in New York, it's kind of like, okay, if the Yankees have a bad season, they're still the Yankees.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So you can revitalize that brand with success quite quickly.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So I knew we had an unbelievable brand.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

And then we have 1,400 people at McLaren, about 1,000 of those in Formula One.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

And as you kind of walked around the halls and the shop, it was like, there's a lot of race wins and championships here.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So the problem isn't the masses.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

The problem is the leadership or the lack of the leadership team.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

And that wasn't any one person's responsibility.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

It was the leadership team as a whole.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

So...

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

I set out focusing on the people.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

I changed the leadership team quickly, one at a time.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Get the right leadership in place to create the right energy and the right culture.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

Attacked the commercial side of the business because that's something I love and was very comfortable with.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

And I felt if we could, you know, you could sell the brand and set a new vision and get people to buy into that.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

First big partner to kind of buy into that was Dell Technologies.

Uncanny Valley | WIRED
The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance

2018, and it was like, okay, once you get a Dell, then they're going to help attract the Googles and the MasterCard.