'It was a mess' - Zak Brown reveals how McLaren turned its F1 fortunes around
episodePreviously titled “The Race Business in conversation with McLaren's Zak Brown” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
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What unique insights does Zak Brown share about his career journey?
Hello, Ed here introducing something a bit different for you as we settle into the gap between the Miami and Canadian Grand Prix. In Miami, the race recorded the first of its new In Conversation With interview series as part of the race business, and our first guest was none other than McLaren CEO Zac Brown. In the conversation with Darren Cox from the race business, Zach looked back over his career prior to heading up the current world champion team and explained how close he came to accepting a job offer from F1 itself just before McLaren came calling. It's a fascinating discussion where you'll hear Zach discuss his journey before and during his time in F1 in great detail, and it will give you an insight into the way he operates at McLaren and how he has helped turn around a team that even he admits was a mess when he got there.
So here's the interview in full. We hope you like it and look for The Race Business on YouTube if you'd like to check out more conversations like this one with big hitters in the F1 industry. Zach, thank you for taking the time. McLaren are double reigning Formula One world champions. You've got 50 or more partners in the group. Record revenue.
How did Zak Brown help turn around McLaren's performance?
You're doing well in IndyCar. You're just about to go to Le Mans. You've just launched a golf company. Is this peak McLaren?
No, it's McLaren on top form. But I think until we've won the Indy 500... and the IndyCar Championship, until we've won Le Mans and the WEC Championship, until we've won the Masters in McLaren Golf.
Okay, it's no longer a triple crown. It's a triple crown.
Or it's going to have to be a triple crown.
What challenges did McLaren face when Zak took over?
Maybe we'll get into a third sport, and we'll have to win the biggies of all three. I mean, we're obviously clearly in a great place, but this sport moves quick. We've been in a great place before and not so great place before. So I think, you know, job now is to maintain and continue to continue to grow. But we're certainly in a great place at the moment.
This is a great event. McLaren live in Miami. I've heard a lot. You've been on stage talking to the fans, which is, again, brilliant for the sport. You and the drivers and the old drivers. We see some of the cars in the background here of those drivers have been out and about. You talk a lot about that learning from failure. You know, McLaren's been up, McLaren's been down. Obviously, the whole Bruce McLaren story is one of resilience anyway. And then when he died, you know, the company still going on. You know, is that something that you've learned from your background? You know, the story that we keep hearing is, you know, the Wheel of Fortune story. That's well documented. But I want to look at a young guy coming over from America to the UK to be a racing driver with basically no money.
How daunting was that and how difficult was that to do?
What lessons did Zak learn from his early experiences in racing?
it was very difficult it was very daunting but uh i kind of didn't know any any different so um i just got stuck into it i knew i had a massive passion for these uh these race cars my first race uh ever was the 1981 long beach grand prix which is kind of in between these two cars here the mo 74 our first world championship and santa's 91 uh uh championship car so uh I've loved race cars ever since I was a little boy. I never kind of knew where I might end up. I knew the goal was to try and be world champion, but that's somewhere between a goal and a fantasy. So to be fortunate enough to be a world champion with McLaren, a two-time world champion with McLaren, and not being done yet is, I think, past any dream or fantasy that I had growing up.
But I just want to take you back to that moment. You know, you pack your bags. You haven't really got a plan, as you say, but you want to go and be a racing driver in the UK. I think in today's society, in today's racing driver market, that's just not comprehensible, is it, for anybody to think that?
It's not the normal route. I'm confident in saying I'm the only one to go from Wheel of Fortune to Formula One. But I think it's just about grinding away.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What unique insights does Zak Brown share about his career journey?
0:02–1:23
2
How did Zak Brown help turn around McLaren's performance?
1:23–1:53
3
What challenges did McLaren face when Zak took over?
1:53–3:00
4
What lessons did Zak learn from his early experiences in racing?
3:00–5:27
5
How does Zak view the future of Formula One and its growth?
5:27–6:43
6
What strategies does McLaren employ to engage with fans?
6:43–7:48
7
How does Zak Brown balance the corporate and competitive aspects of racing?
7:48–9:28
8
What is Zak's advice for aspiring leaders in the racing industry?
9:28–34:18
Speakers
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