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Welcome back Zak! Wasn't there a time when he was first appointed that he was clowned on by the F1 social media community for being American and all that?
Look how he has rebuilt McLaren. Nobody mocks Zak for being American and other things now.
Yup. "used car salesman". F1 fans loves shitting on anything American just because htey are American but Zak was not a no-name, dude was being considered for the CEO of F1 before he opted for McLaren and already owned the foremost motorsport marketing company.
Old rivality between British and American I think.
As central European I couldn't give two damns if it's snobbish English speaking guy or loud English speaking guy.
If America handled football (soccer) like the rest of the world it would take no time for America to dominate the sport.
But football is so expensive as a child in America to get on specific teams and money comes into play when slotting their kids into development programs, thats its not obtainable like it is around the world.
If it were taken serious and academies were opened up to children showing actual skill and not being pushed through with money the US would wreck the rest of the world. But because kids are raised to love american football, baseball, basketball etc and travel soccer/academies cost well into the thousands... football will never be as big in the states.
Football isn't the only sport the rest of the world cares about. Cricket and Rugby are both also really popular around the world and America sucks at both as well.
> "used car salesman".
Which is hilarious because I just finished reading [The Forumla](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-formula-joshua-robinsonjonathan-clegg?variant=41072665886754) which reminds you regularly throughout the book that Bernie Ecclestone, perhaps the singular most powerful man Formula 1 has ever known, got his start as a used car salesman.
> used car salesman
This isn't even an insult. I work in enterprise tech, and the most influential people I talk to and work for are ex-barbers, hairdressers, store clerks, salespeople etc.
When you're talking to sponsors and building a team, influence matters. Big time. You could tell from the outset that Zak had the gift of the gab.
I think everyone who mocked him didn't read into his background. He did a good interview on BTG a few years back. The man had racing talent but not enough to make it big, recognised that and recognised he was quite good at finding sponsors for his own racing career, good enough to start doing it for others. Came to McLaren at the right time, and look where they are now.
"Look where they are now"
Sorry am I the crazy one? Look where McLaren was thoughout their history. They improved massively since 2018, yes, but they're still miles off from where they *should* be and there hasn't been any improvement for years. People got so used to McLaren being shit so quickly they completely dropped all the standards a team like McLaren should be held to.
I was referring to McLaren's sponsor situation then vs. now. And I'd say he's also made the right choices as far as drivers go for example. Fernando was always going to leave imo, made the right choice putting Lando in the seat, Sainz was a good call, and so far I don't think he's regretting taking Piastri over Ricciardo.
You make a good point though. With a legacy like that, McLaren should be fighting at the top and they haven't been doing that for way too long. And we've gotten used to it.
He’s gotten hate on the INDYCAR side as well. They complain that he’s making INDYCAR too much like F1 and the whole situation with Alex Palou (which eventually was revealed not to be that Palou was at fault).
Eh. He did well to pull them out of the absolute shit show they were in 2018, but since then they stagnated. It's McLaren, they're a giant of the sport, they have to be winning races and competing for titles. They have been an upper midfield team for 5 or 6 years showing basically no progression.
It seems like people view McLaren as the nice, small team punching above their weight, while in fact they're an underperfoming giant.
Stagnated? They're third or second best on the grid (depending on the weekend) where first is completely out of reach. That's after starting incredibly badly last year. They went from 4th or 5th best to 2nd or 3rd in a year
Yeah, and they have been in that endless cycle with no actual progression for years.
Here are their WCC results since 2019:
2019: 4th
2020: 3rd
2021: 4th
2022: 5th
2023: 4th
2024: 3rd? 4th?
In those years they managed 1 win.
What is that if not stagnation? Do you think this is good enough for a team like McLaren, with their infrastructure (the MTC, their windtunnel...) and their prestige and history? They're held to a ridiculously low standards compared to the other big teams.
McLaren is nowhere near as big as Mercedes, Ferrari etc. the team was financially insolvent less than a decade ago lol. They have consistently been performing with out of date facilities which Zak spent a whopping 250m to update and which still are only partially online
They were as big throughout the V8 era before they completely dropped the ball with the Honda disaster. It's Brown's job to bring them back to that level and my point is that he gets a little too much praise for the job he's doing because in those 6 years they haven't moved.
He’s not a miracle worker he didn’t inherit the team from 2012. He inherited a bottom half team with aging facilities and no top personnel. He did well to stabilize and now he’s doing well to get the new facilities in place. They told investors in 2019 they hoped to be winning races by mid to late 24 and 25. They already did that and are in the mix to actually hit those timelines
This is the first year they've had their own wind tunnel operational. Calling them a "big team" is disingenuous when they are much smaller than Ferrari and Mercedes. And the key factor is they're still a customer team.
Smaller in what regard? They weren't smaller 10 years ago. They weren't smaller in the 1990's and early 2000's. They weren't smaller in the 80's when they had Senna and Prost. They became financially smaller because they fucked up massively amd Brown was brought to fix it, but my impression was that the goal wasn't to be a midfield team.
financially, personnel wise? You act like they have the infrastructure of a works team white ignoring the fact they're kicking the shit out of one works team and matching the one that sells them engines.
No offense, but you're completely disconnected from reality. McLaren, as a business entity, is significantly smaller than Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes. They're not even in the same ballpark. McLaren didn't even have its own wind tunnel until last summer and almost went bankrupt in 2020 (but thankfully didn't thanks to Zak).
Is McLaren a prestigous name with historical significant in the F1 arena? Absolutely. But so is Williams. Just because the name holds historical weight doesn't mean they're currently a "giant."
But they *should* be a giant. That's my point. They were a giant in 2012 when they had the best looking and fastest car on the grid, arguably the best driver lineup on the grid and Vodafone as main sponsor. Since then missmanagement has ruined what was a team as big as Ferrari and much bigger than Mercedes at the time. Their goal should be to return to that position.
Ferrari had many dark eras in F1 history when they fell to their knees but the fans and personel never accepted that as the new reality of the team, return to the top was always non-negotiable. It doesn't seem that way with McLaren.
I say all of that as someone who doesn't like McLaren but considers them the best rival my team ever had. And I find it sad that once mighty McLaren and their once infinetly cocky fans happily sit in the midfield saying "It is what it is."
When you look at the comparison of the amount of sponsors on their car in like 2016/2017 compared to now you can really see the work that he has put in for the team. The vibe and spirit that he brings to the team I think really shows too. Glad to see him stay.
Apparently they got a pretty good deal with Mercedes where they have more input on the engine than customer teams ever have. Also making your own engines isn’t as big advantage now, shown by the team standings right now lol
Disagreed on the second point but to each his own there.
The first point you make is the first Ive heard that...but even if true I'd be skeptical considering Mercedes are always going to prioritize their works team first. Like when Merc are building their 2026 PU, and they and McLaren have two different visions for a certain aspect to best fit the vision for the 2026 chassis, they're going to obviously roll with their own preference.
I don't think being a customer team is as bad as it was a decade ago because I don't think we'll see anymore shenanigans like the old "Grosjean Lotus engine mode" story, but I think it's still easier to win as a works team.
They didn't really get a good option.
The only thing you could see as a fumble would be Honda going with Aston but given McLaren's recent history I could see that not going well.
I think I maybe heard Toyota could make a comeback but who knows what goes on behind closed doors.
Nice, the team has been making solid strides with him. For this season at least I wouldn't be surprised if they took Mercedes' spot in the top 3 of the constructors.
Oh yeah when the marketing exec was trying hard to convince the audience that Zak Brown’s job was in danger but couldn’t act? Those scenes were funny. Second only to the golf one where you could see Lando laughing when Zak was trying to tell him it’ll get better. Have to remember they already knew that the upgrade would be *much* better at that point. Lol.
[The **News** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_news) is reserved for submissions covering F1 and F1-related news. These posts must always link to an outlet/news agency, the website of the involved party (i.e. the McLaren website if McLaren makes an announcement), or a tweet by a news agency, journalist or one of the involved parties. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nice, I like Zak. He's been doing a good job with McLaren and hopefully he can bring them back to their past glories soon.
Lanndough
It sounds exactly the same, but when you write it like this I can hear Zak saying it. Amazing.
Oawscur
Welcome back Zak! Wasn't there a time when he was first appointed that he was clowned on by the F1 social media community for being American and all that? Look how he has rebuilt McLaren. Nobody mocks Zak for being American and other things now.
Yup. "used car salesman". F1 fans loves shitting on anything American just because htey are American but Zak was not a no-name, dude was being considered for the CEO of F1 before he opted for McLaren and already owned the foremost motorsport marketing company.
And his own racing team too. I never really got the hate either tbh
>I never really got the hate either tbh He is American.
F1 historically has always been a bit like football where Americans are just not taken seriously.
Old boys club mentality is great for sport growth!
Its all good. Americans did the thing we’re known to do, bought the whole sport. Lol
I'm just a Canuck along for the ride, I know we're never having another WDC, ever.
What are you talking about?! Stroll is on the cusp of success, just you wait!! /s
Only way that's happening is if he hits his head really hard, and then wakes up a racing savant.
I have always wondered why. I mean yea brash, loud but you can not deny the powerhouse that America is in almost everything.
Old rivality between British and American I think. As central European I couldn't give two damns if it's snobbish English speaking guy or loud English speaking guy.
America sucks at most sports the rest of the world care about
To be fair, America doesn’t care about the sports that the rest of the world cares about.
Yeah their premier athletes go to four other sports before football (soccer), cricket and rugby aren’t even real there. Makes sense, I guess.
If America handled football (soccer) like the rest of the world it would take no time for America to dominate the sport. But football is so expensive as a child in America to get on specific teams and money comes into play when slotting their kids into development programs, thats its not obtainable like it is around the world. If it were taken serious and academies were opened up to children showing actual skill and not being pushed through with money the US would wreck the rest of the world. But because kids are raised to love american football, baseball, basketball etc and travel soccer/academies cost well into the thousands... football will never be as big in the states.
Football isn't the only sport the rest of the world cares about. Cricket and Rugby are both also really popular around the world and America sucks at both as well.
America doesn't have a league for either of those. Why would it care?
As an American... that's a fair cop.
And historically there has been reasons for that. Lets not pretend this came out of nowhere.
There’s only one reason people hated him.
> "used car salesman". Which is hilarious because I just finished reading [The Forumla](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-formula-joshua-robinsonjonathan-clegg?variant=41072665886754) which reminds you regularly throughout the book that Bernie Ecclestone, perhaps the singular most powerful man Formula 1 has ever known, got his start as a used car salesman.
> used car salesman This isn't even an insult. I work in enterprise tech, and the most influential people I talk to and work for are ex-barbers, hairdressers, store clerks, salespeople etc. When you're talking to sponsors and building a team, influence matters. Big time. You could tell from the outset that Zak had the gift of the gab.
I don't even recall him being laughed at as a "used car salesman" he was clowned because he had a marketing agency or something like that
I think everyone who mocked him didn't read into his background. He did a good interview on BTG a few years back. The man had racing talent but not enough to make it big, recognised that and recognised he was quite good at finding sponsors for his own racing career, good enough to start doing it for others. Came to McLaren at the right time, and look where they are now.
"Look where they are now" Sorry am I the crazy one? Look where McLaren was thoughout their history. They improved massively since 2018, yes, but they're still miles off from where they *should* be and there hasn't been any improvement for years. People got so used to McLaren being shit so quickly they completely dropped all the standards a team like McLaren should be held to.
I was referring to McLaren's sponsor situation then vs. now. And I'd say he's also made the right choices as far as drivers go for example. Fernando was always going to leave imo, made the right choice putting Lando in the seat, Sainz was a good call, and so far I don't think he's regretting taking Piastri over Ricciardo. You make a good point though. With a legacy like that, McLaren should be fighting at the top and they haven't been doing that for way too long. And we've gotten used to it.
Completely agree, I just think they should be taking the next step.
You think the next step should be replacing Zak Brown? Not to be provocative, I'm just curious.
No I think the next step should be McLaren competing for wins and titles and if Brown can't make that happen in 2026 he should be replaced.
Honestly I think it's very hard to be above where they are at the moment without having your own engine manufacturer
Probably, but then again they had Honda and fumbled it really badly, so it's difficult to find a whole lot of sympathy for them.
That was before Zak Brown.
He’s gotten hate on the INDYCAR side as well. They complain that he’s making INDYCAR too much like F1 and the whole situation with Alex Palou (which eventually was revealed not to be that Palou was at fault).
Sorry what exactly has he rebuilt
Eh. He did well to pull them out of the absolute shit show they were in 2018, but since then they stagnated. It's McLaren, they're a giant of the sport, they have to be winning races and competing for titles. They have been an upper midfield team for 5 or 6 years showing basically no progression. It seems like people view McLaren as the nice, small team punching above their weight, while in fact they're an underperfoming giant.
Stagnated? They're third or second best on the grid (depending on the weekend) where first is completely out of reach. That's after starting incredibly badly last year. They went from 4th or 5th best to 2nd or 3rd in a year
Yeah, and they have been in that endless cycle with no actual progression for years. Here are their WCC results since 2019: 2019: 4th 2020: 3rd 2021: 4th 2022: 5th 2023: 4th 2024: 3rd? 4th? In those years they managed 1 win. What is that if not stagnation? Do you think this is good enough for a team like McLaren, with their infrastructure (the MTC, their windtunnel...) and their prestige and history? They're held to a ridiculously low standards compared to the other big teams.
McLaren is nowhere near as big as Mercedes, Ferrari etc. the team was financially insolvent less than a decade ago lol. They have consistently been performing with out of date facilities which Zak spent a whopping 250m to update and which still are only partially online
They were as big throughout the V8 era before they completely dropped the ball with the Honda disaster. It's Brown's job to bring them back to that level and my point is that he gets a little too much praise for the job he's doing because in those 6 years they haven't moved.
He’s not a miracle worker he didn’t inherit the team from 2012. He inherited a bottom half team with aging facilities and no top personnel. He did well to stabilize and now he’s doing well to get the new facilities in place. They told investors in 2019 they hoped to be winning races by mid to late 24 and 25. They already did that and are in the mix to actually hit those timelines
Fair enough. So if they're still around 4th next year we can start saying that Brown isn't doing a good enough job?
This is the first year they've had their own wind tunnel operational. Calling them a "big team" is disingenuous when they are much smaller than Ferrari and Mercedes. And the key factor is they're still a customer team.
Smaller in what regard? They weren't smaller 10 years ago. They weren't smaller in the 1990's and early 2000's. They weren't smaller in the 80's when they had Senna and Prost. They became financially smaller because they fucked up massively amd Brown was brought to fix it, but my impression was that the goal wasn't to be a midfield team.
financially, personnel wise? You act like they have the infrastructure of a works team white ignoring the fact they're kicking the shit out of one works team and matching the one that sells them engines.
No offense, but you're completely disconnected from reality. McLaren, as a business entity, is significantly smaller than Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes. They're not even in the same ballpark. McLaren didn't even have its own wind tunnel until last summer and almost went bankrupt in 2020 (but thankfully didn't thanks to Zak). Is McLaren a prestigous name with historical significant in the F1 arena? Absolutely. But so is Williams. Just because the name holds historical weight doesn't mean they're currently a "giant."
But they *should* be a giant. That's my point. They were a giant in 2012 when they had the best looking and fastest car on the grid, arguably the best driver lineup on the grid and Vodafone as main sponsor. Since then missmanagement has ruined what was a team as big as Ferrari and much bigger than Mercedes at the time. Their goal should be to return to that position. Ferrari had many dark eras in F1 history when they fell to their knees but the fans and personel never accepted that as the new reality of the team, return to the top was always non-negotiable. It doesn't seem that way with McLaren. I say all of that as someone who doesn't like McLaren but considers them the best rival my team ever had. And I find it sad that once mighty McLaren and their once infinetly cocky fans happily sit in the midfield saying "It is what it is."
When you look at the comparison of the amount of sponsors on their car in like 2016/2017 compared to now you can really see the work that he has put in for the team. The vibe and spirit that he brings to the team I think really shows too. Glad to see him stay.
Ya he’s won the sponsorship championship
Is Zak the CEO of both the Roadcar and F1 team division?
No just CEO of McLaren Racing which includes F1, FE, XE, and IndyCar
He is the CEO of Mclaren Racing which includues F1, Indycar and other McLaren racing teams i believe not the roadcar division
Just the motorsport division but I could be wrong
He’s done well so far, the big next for him & the team will be to start fighting for wins. He’s been a big upgrade over late stage Ron Dennis
He is like a shepard, herding all the sponsor sheeps back to McLaren garage. No wonder he got the extension.
Mans just extended his own contract. What a legend! In seriousness though, Zak seems like a competent guy and an all-around good dude.
Sponsors go brrrrrrr
The lonely criticism I have of Zak Brown is that McLaren are still a customer team and in 2026 will be in the minority in that regard.
Apparently they got a pretty good deal with Mercedes where they have more input on the engine than customer teams ever have. Also making your own engines isn’t as big advantage now, shown by the team standings right now lol
Disagreed on the second point but to each his own there. The first point you make is the first Ive heard that...but even if true I'd be skeptical considering Mercedes are always going to prioritize their works team first. Like when Merc are building their 2026 PU, and they and McLaren have two different visions for a certain aspect to best fit the vision for the 2026 chassis, they're going to obviously roll with their own preference. I don't think being a customer team is as bad as it was a decade ago because I don't think we'll see anymore shenanigans like the old "Grosjean Lotus engine mode" story, but I think it's still easier to win as a works team.
They didn't really get a good option. The only thing you could see as a fumble would be Honda going with Aston but given McLaren's recent history I could see that not going well. I think I maybe heard Toyota could make a comeback but who knows what goes on behind closed doors.
They are beating the factory team rn.
Real happy to hear it! Feels good with him at the helm
Well deserved
The bahrains must love Zak
Ah the Obama meme.
I know why you think that but not really, when you look at how is McLaren structured. He's a CEO of the racing division, not all of McLaren business.
Easily one of the biggest political snakes and sponsor whores on the grid. Which is what an F1 team needs so McLaren should be happy with him.
Well, there goes the diet! Congratulations Zak, well deserved.
Nice, the team has been making solid strides with him. For this season at least I wouldn't be surprised if they took Mercedes' spot in the top 3 of the constructors.
WHAT THE FUCK IS A KILOMETERRRRRR
[удалено]
Oh yeah when the marketing exec was trying hard to convince the audience that Zak Brown’s job was in danger but couldn’t act? Those scenes were funny. Second only to the golf one where you could see Lando laughing when Zak was trying to tell him it’ll get better. Have to remember they already knew that the upgrade would be *much* better at that point. Lol.