McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed how McLaren rose from the ashes of the dark Honda years to win back-to-back Formula 1 constructors’ titles in 2024 and 2025.
McLaren today is synonymous with success, having won both titles in 2025, and the constructors’ title in 2024, but this is a marked difference from ten years ago.
Back in 2016, the Woking marque was in one of its darkest periods, with its Honda works power unit proving underpowered and unreliable.
But Honda’s woes were only part of the problem, as deep-seated issues at the team were being masked, which only became apparent in 2018 when McLaren switched to Renault power.
Brown took over from Ron Dennis in late 2016 and immediately began a transformation, overhauling the management structure and changing the then toxic atmosphere.
Responding to a question during a media day at the McLaren Technology Centre, Brown said the biggest change was “people and culture by a country mile”.
“I think about my first day joining,” he said to media, including Motorsport Week. “It was a dark environment, and that was literally the paint on the race car, being black and dark grey, to the walls.
“You could feel it was a cold environment. It wasn’t a happy environment. The partners weren’t happy, our drivers weren’t happy, and the majority of our race team wasn’t happy, [and there were] a lot of conspiracy theories running around.
“I think we’re a much more vibrant team. There was a huge amount of talent in here. It was just about unlocking it, providing motivation, excitement, and bringing some fun back.
“We race cars for a living. It’s more fun winning than losing, but at the end of the day, it’s a pretty fun job.
“So [it was about] getting everyone in a teamwork environment and the culture that all of the people in the leadership team, and obviously, Andrea [Stella] is the one who is most visible to all of you, but my head of people, our CFO, the commercial department, comms, they’ve all done a wonderful job in their respective departments.
A change in culture behind McLaren ascent
Revealing the extent of the toxic environment that had engulfed McLaren, Brown hinted one particular area of detachment.
“When I joined, there was an us and them, upstairs, downstairs, racing team, commercial department”, he said.
“Now it’s exciting to see when we do something like a weight-saving exercise, and you start having to kind of modify the vinyl on your race car, as small as that may seem, the commercial department gets excited about feeling like they’re contributing to the solution to make the race car faster.
“So when we win on Sunday, the finance department knows they had a big role in that, etcetera. So when you can get 1400 people, not all of those are on Formula 1, but the predominant amount, rowing in the same direction and all understanding how important their role is to our on-track success, it creates an awesome environment.
“I wouldn’t want to be as naive as to say we have no politics here, but I’d say we have very little.”
McLaren is unrecognisable from the team that raced in 2016, a more open environment that, to use Brown’s own words, is vibrant. Walking through the famous boulevard, the positive atmosphere is both a contrast and a stark reminder of the dark, foreboding mood that once dominated it.
Discussion about this post