McLaren CEO Zak Brown has admitted his rivalry with Christian Horner “went too far” at times in Formula 1, but he hopes a change at Red Bull will see relations improve.
Tensions between the pair peaked in the 2024 season, when Horner called Brown a “pr*ck” in Netflix’s Drive to Survive. This followed Brown’s call for a “thorough” and “fully transparent” investigation into Horner over allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward a female colleague – claims Horner was later cleared of following an internal investigation.
The rivalry also flared over a tyre cooling dispute that originated from Singapore last year and spilt over into the 2025 Miami Grand Prix.
Brown mocked Red Bull’s complaints by drinking from a bottle labelled ‘tire water’, to which Horner retorted by suggesting he’d bring Brown “a Red Bull [drink] if he needs some energising.”
Despite the recent acrimony, Brown expressed optimism about McLaren’s relationship off the track with Red Bull now that Laurent Mekies is at the helm.
“I’m happy he’s in the role he’s in,” Brown told The Race. “I like Laurent, and I think that’ll be healthy, and maybe we can get back to focusing on competition on the track.
“While there’s always going to be some political aspects to the sport, I think it’s going to be healthier with Laurent.
“I’m a fan of Laurent. I’ve known him for a long time, and I think it’ll be good to go racing against Laurent.”
Reflecting on the tense history between McLaren and Red Bull, Brown admitted the relationship had “gone too far”.
“There’s always going to be politicking, and let’s try and shut down their flexi wings and that stuff,” he said.
“But when you start getting into frivolous allegations, I think that’s just going too far.
“If I look up and down pitlane now, I see us fighting each other hard politically, but there being a line that’s not crossed.
“I think that line got crossed before, and I think it was unhealthy. So I think that we’ll see a little bit of a change for the better.”
McLaren CEO eyes respectful but fierce rivalry with Red Bull
Brown envisions the McLaren-Red Bull rivalry evolving into the kind of strong but respectful competition McLaren enjoys with Ferrari and Mercedes.
Brown praised Ferrari’s Team Principal Fred Vasseur for joining in McLaren’s celebration of Lando Norris’s maiden F1 victory in Miami last year, labelling it as a sign of a healthy relationship.
“I love the way we raced Ferrari,” added Brown. “Fred kind of started it by celebrating our Miami win.
“I’ve known Fred a long time. He’s a proper racer, and the way we went racing – make no mistake about it, we want to beat each other – but I enjoyed that. I thought that was really good for the sport.
“From a fan’s point of view, the drama of the villain stuff, I think works. But I also think the celebratory ‘fight it out on track, but then kind of photobomb each other’, which that all kind of just happened, that’s really good.
“That’s a more fun way to go racing, and can be just as entertaining as the good cop, bad cop thing.”
Looking ahead, Brown stressed the importance of trust and co-operation between teams off the track for the benefit of the sport.
“I also think it’s important for the benefit of the sport that we all can work together, and there’s a higher level of trust,” he said.
“That if we sit down and have a conversation on a topic, that we think that there can be some confidentiality to that, and it’s just not an automatic: ‘Well, I’m going to use that as a political weapon.’
“I think we’re going to be in a better place to be a little bit more unified and a little bit more trusting that, while we’re fighting it out on the track, we can have a conversation about what’s good for the sport — and that won’t get manipulated in a way for political reasons and taken out of context.”
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