“It was worse than I thought,” Zak Brown reflects on taking over a struggling McLaren F1 team
Follow Us
Zak Brown
Zak Brown the CEO of the McLaren Formula One team has recently given his thoughts on what the situation was like for him when he joined the team back in 2016.
Zak Brown has revealed that the team situation was way worse than what he initially thought. Zak took over a struggling McLaren team in 2016 when Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were its drivers. That season the team finished a disappointing 6th in the Constructors Championship and also suffered 9 DNFs across the whole season.
The downward spiral continued during 2017 when they finished in 9th position, however, since then the team is in a much better position today and a lot of credit for it goes to Brown who changed the fortunes of the team with his leadership ability.
The 50-tear-old brought a huge change in the work ethic of the team and while stressing about the difficulties he faced at the team, Brown said, “It was worse than I thought it was going to be as far as the environment, what was going on,” he told FOX Sports. “I joined in the worst year in the history of McLaren.”
“We were in our second year of the Honda relationship, which we struggled with, but logic would say the third is going to be better than the second. It actually ended up kind of being the other way around.”
“I don’t think that was by any means all on Honda, it was the entire environment. So I thought I was coming into something that was already on the rebound and what I figured out was actually it was still going down.”
“So that was a surprise but I knew given how many races this team’s won, how many Championships this team’s won, that there was a lot of talent inside here, but they just maybe needed some fresh direction and leadership to unlock the talent that was here, is here, and it’s been a great journey.”
Also Read: McLaren declare hope of Mercedes saving Lando Norris’ Austria PU
Zak Brown has been extremely influential on the McLaren F1 team
Zak is a very lively character under whose leadership the team was able to finish as high as third in the Championship and also was able to find a prolific driver in Lando Norris. The Woking-based team is seen as one of the most positive teams in the sport and it was very much on display when Daniel Ricciardo won at Monza last year.
“On kind of the cultural side, we’re having fun,” Brown said. “I think if you’re having fun racing, and how can you not have fun going racing? Even though not winning is not fun. But if you have fun, people are trusting and they work harder.”
“This is a hard job. It’s a fun job, but it’s a hard job. Communication was poor, trust was low. So it was all kind of cultural were the problems. That was one thing.”
“Then we had technical issues. Our wind tunnel is outdated, we have a new wind tunnel coming in, our simulator was old, and our manufacturing facility was a bit outdated. So I found that culturally, we weren’t in a great place, the team wasn’t operating as a team, as a single unit. And then technically, we were behind in some of our investments.”
“So it was those two things that [I] set about changing and so far, so good, but we’re still not where we want to be.”
Zak Brown has admitted that changing a Formula One team is an extremely difficult task as there are many factors in play but feels his struggles at the team have all been worth it considering where the team is now.
“I’ve enjoyed it and I think that makes it more enjoyable because when you get your first win in Monza, all the blood sweat and tears that went into that moment.”
“In Spa, Lando was probably going to be on pole and then I would have hated that to be our first win, where you win a race that you never actually go racing.”
“So to kind of go to Monza an iconic track finish one-two, take the lead at the start, never looked back, best launches in the race, best pitstops in the race, fastest laps in the race. That just all came together so that was immensely rewarding.”
Zak has been the protagonist of change at the papaya-colored team and wants to take the team to even greater heights than what he has already taken them to so far. However, after the promising performance of last season, the team has kind of gone backward and is currently in a fight with Alpine for the fourth position in the Constructors Championship.
The battle is extremely tight between the two and this is about the right time for Zak to spread his magic once again so that his team is all charged up for what is going to be a tough last 11 races of the season.
Can McLaren finish in fourth place this season?
Also Read: “Motor racing is huge in South Africa,” Brad Binder excited to see Kyalami back on the F1 calendar
Stay Updated!
Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)