Interview: Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing

Interview: Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing

The 2021 F1 season was definitely one for the history books. In one of the most fiercely contested battles in recent memory, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overtook seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in the final lap of the year’s closing race in Abu Dhabi to secure his first world title. The world’s fastest sport delivered a season that fired on all cylinders. Among the 10 teams participating were McLaren Mercedes. In F1, McLaren is the second oldest active team, as well as the second most successful Formula 1 team – behind Ferrari – having won 183 races, 12 drivers’ championships and eight constructors’ championships. Currently helming McLaren Racing and calling the shots at the outfit is CEO Zak Brown. “It’s highly likely we’ll finish fourth [in the Constructors’ Championship],” Brown correctly predicted to Gulf Business just ahead of the final race in Abu Dhabi last year. “That’s probably the only disappointing part to the season.” But the 2021 season as a whole has been far from disappointing for McLaren Racing; in fact it’s been one of its best in over a decade. At the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, McLaren scored its first victory in 10 years, with its two