McLaren chiefs Zak Brown and Andrea Stella dropped some subtle digs at Formula 1 rivals Red Bull over staff retention.
Brown has long been a thorn in Red Bull’s side.
During the behind-the-scenes controversy surrounding Christian Horner last year, he was vocal in the media on several occasions.
When Adrian Newey announced his departure, Brown told media in Miami last May “The stuff going on there is pretty destabilising. I’m guessing it won’t be the last [departure] given the resumes that are flying around.”
2024 saw other key figures leave Red Bull, with long-serving Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley accepting a Team Principal role with Sauber/Audi and McLaren announcing in September it had poached its rival’s Head of Race Strategy Will Courtenay to serve as the Woking squad’s Sporting Director.
The release of Courtenay from his gardening leave has yet to occur, and it looks as if Red Bull will delay the arrival of its former strategist in Woking for as long as possible.
Stella was asked during the Australian Grand Prix weekend why this was being delayed and whether the rivalry brewing between McLaren and Red Bull was the cause.
“There are some contracts that need to be complied with and we respect the position of the other party at the moment,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
That’s what they want to enforce, and we will be patient,” the diplomatic Italian added.
Still, Stella, much like his counterpart Brown, couldn’t resist highlighting that McLaren is becoming a better proposition than Red Bull.
“We are very interested in injecting expertise and understand even more about how other teams operate, and we are very focused on creating an environment where not only our people want to remain, but also that can be attractive for the other people to join.
“And it looks like that’s been the case with some senior members that came from the same party.”
‘People don’t steal employees, you lose them’ – Brown
McLaren has worked over the winter to tie its leadership, technical and driving team down to long-term futures in Woking.
The latest signature was that of Oscar Piastri, who has penned a multi-year extension starting in 2026.
Brown argued that the importance of what McLaren is doing is creating an environment where staff want to remain, arguing that nobody steals your sponsors or colleagues, but they’re lost instead.
“I think what’s important, you know, you hear over the years, people steal your sponsors, people steal your drivers, people steal your employees. They don’t. You lose them.
“If someone can get a logo off of our shirt, that’s on us, more power to them.
“So I think putting aside the contractual element you want to create, which I think we’ve successfully done. We don’t have a single change on our pit wall this year. We don’t have a single change in our technical leadership. We don’t have, obviously, any changes in our driver roster.
“And that’s because we’ve worked very hard to create an environment where people want to be at McLaren. Their families want to be at McLaren. And that’s something that I think Andrea and I, and the leadership, spend a lot of time on making it an environment that people want to be at, where we don’t have to rely on contracts to have people stay at McLaren.”
Given Brown’s track record, that may well just be another message for Red Bull, especially since he didn’t resist questioning the team’s driver selection.
Speaking to Sky Sports after Yuki Tsunoda qualified fifth at the Albert Park Circuit and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson suffered a Q1 exit, Brown said: “Yuki did a great job, probably the guy that should be in the Red Bull if you look at how he’s performed, but they seem to make some strange driver choices.”
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