'Most exciting racing team in the world': Zak Brown on McLaren's F1 team and other programs

One year ago, the McLaren F1 Team - one of the most successful teams in Formula One history - was struggling. A chaotic Australian Grand Prix aside, the team came to the Miami Grand Prix with just one points finish across four races. The team's drivers, especially star Lando Norris, were disappointed and concerned for the future.

Another finish near the back of field in Miami did little to stop those concerns. But, as has become a theme during McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown's tenure, the team turned things around mid-season to win a race and take multiple podiums in 2023.

McLaren's notched multiple podium finishes so far in 2024, including the most recent race in China, and emerged as one of the top three teams in the sport. But it's more than just these results in Formula One for Brown and McLaren Racing's vision.

"Ultimately, it's about creating the most exciting racing team in the world," Brown said.

Here's how he and the organization have built the foundation for that as Formula One returns to south Florida this weekend for the Miami Grand Prix.

A $10 billion offer rejected? Miami Dolphins not for sale as F1 race drives up valuation

How did Zak Brown become McLaren CEO?

Brown grew up in southern California. He'd go with his father and brother to see races for the IndyCar and NASCAR series at the nearby Riverside International Raceway. They'd also go to see races like Formula One held on the streets of Long Beach. He still has the program from the Formula One race at Long Beach in 1981 that he attended as a 10-year-old.

"I thought it was so cool," Brown said on Formula One's Beyond the Grid podcast.

Six years later, Brown met Mario Andretti, one of the most successful American drivers in motorsport history, through a friend. He asked Andretti how to get into racing. The answer was karting, the common first level of an international motorsport career.

Luckily, Brown could finance himself to start his career. He made it on Teen Week of "Wheel of Fortune" a few years prior and won multiple prizes, including watches and an Apple computer.

He sold his prizes and used the earnings to buy a kart and a spot in the local kart racing school.

Over the following decade, Brown raced in the U.S. against the likes of future NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick and in Europe against future Formula One drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya, Jos Verstappen (father of three-time reigning Formula One champion Max Verstappen), Giancarlo Fisichella, Jan Magnussen (father of current Haas driver Kevin Magnussen), and Jarno Trulli.

By the late 1990s, Brown had competed against top talent but started to burn out. He turned to marketing and, using his contacts through his racing career, built JMI (Just Marketing International). Within the next decade it grew to one of the largest motorsport marketing groups in the world.

JMI brokered sponsorship deals for Formula One teams including Ferrari (with UPS), Williams (Unilever), and McLaren (Johnnie Walker, Chandon, Lenovo, and Hilton). While JMI took off, Brown created the sports car racing team United Autosport with fellow former driver Richard Dean in 2009.

After several years managing United Autosport and some appearances in racing once again, Brown came on board with McLaren as the new executive director in 2016. This meant he'd be overseeing the racing side starting before becoming CEO in 2018.

"McLaren has always been my favorite team dating back to Ayrton Senna," Brown said. "For me, I'm definitely in my dream job. There's not a racing team I love more than McLaren."

How McLaren's turned around under Brown

McLaren is one of the most iconic brands in Formula One. The team first entered the sport in 1966 and has won 183 races, 12 world drivers' championships, and eight world constructors' championships in 951 races entered. All of those marks are second only to Ferrari in Formula One history.

But the team was far from glory days when Brown joined in 2016. The year earlier, McLaren had its worst season since 1980, finishing ninth in the constructors' championship. It was nearly a decade removed from its last world championship in 2008 with Lewis Hamilton and was in the back half of the field in performance.

"It was a team in turmoil so I wasn't walking into a happy environment," Brown said. "Whether that was fans, whether that was employees, whether that was sponsors, whether that was shareholders."

Brown got to work, starting with sponsors.

"When I joined, McLaren was at a record-low as far as sponsorship revenue," Brown recalled. "You need to be able to afford the best drivers, the best equipment, so that was an area I felt I could contribute quickly."

With his marketing background, Brown handled that side of the business. He's admittedly less in tune with the engineering side of Formula One and built that side of McLaren out with strong figures from inside the series and from other places as well. After a few years of reshuffling management positions, Brown brought in Andreas Seidl - who ran a championship-winning endurance racing program with Porsche - as team principal in 2019.

McLaren Turns a Corner

The 2019 season marked a turning point for McLaren. Behind a rookie Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr., the team enjoyed its best season since 2012, capped off with a podium in the penultimate race. Norris has been a mainstay at the team ever since and helped McLaren stay in the top five of the constructors' championship in each of the last five seasons.

"We took a big risk on [Norris]," Brown said. "McLaren was a team that historically went for the proven world champions but they took a big risk on Lewis Hamilton and that worked out pretty well."

In 2021, the team earned its first 1-2 finish in a race since 2010 with a win at the Italian Grand Prix.

That uptick in performance and a marketing push helped McLaren become the most popular team on the grid in Formula One's most recent fan survey in 2021. McLaren earned 29.5% of the vote for favorite team on the grid, well ahead of Red Bull (19.8%) in second.

"A lot of our special liveries and our different comms and digital strategies are all geared towards the fan," Brown said. "We want to hear from our fans, we engage with our fans and it's great to see the fans are enjoying the access and inclusivity we're building here at McLaren."

That success since Brown took over as CEO sprung a broader investment in racing. Starting in 2020, McLaren's entered full-time racing teams in the IndyCar, Formula E, and Extreme E series.

"Formula One's the center of our ecosystem," Brown said. "IndyCar gives us a bigger North American presence than any of our Formula One competitors. We're in Formula E because sustainability's very important to us. We were the first and only F1 team to be in Extreme E because gender equality, sustainability, and climate change are all very important to us."

'I'm not different': F1 star Guenther Steiner loves unemployed life, and his new role with F1 Miami Grand Prix

McLaren's future in Formula One

This year, McLaren's firmly in the top half of the Formula One grid. Norris' podium in China was a pleasant surprise as many thought the team would struggle at that event due to the car's strengths and weaknesses.

"That was a very positive outcome," Brown said. "Because we're so data driven and we like to be very accurate, it does also raise an eyebrow of 'why were we so good when we thought we might be pretty weak?'... but clearly indicates now that we're five races in that we've got a good race car."

That car's operated by arguably the best duo of young drivers on the grid. Norris is well-established as a top driver and second-year Australian Oscar Piastri won open-wheel racing championships in 2020 (Formula Renault Eurocup), 2021 (Formula 3), and 2022 (Formula 2) on his way to Formula One.

"That's where McLaren is today - we're youthful, we take calculated risks," Brown said. "Obviously it worked out with [Norris] so it gave us the confidence to move forward with [Piastri] and that's working out brilliantly."

In 2024, the team's also signed Bianca Bustamante to its driver program. Bustamante competes in the all-female F1 Academy racing series this season, which will run its second race of the year in Miami this weekend.

"[Diversity and inclusion] is very important to us, our partners, our fans," Brown said. "I believe that a more diverse workforce gives you more ideas, better ideas ultimately."

As McLaren's footprint outside Formula One grows, Brown and the group are still aiming to close the gap to Ferrari on a consistent basis over the rest of 2024 and into 2025. Then comes 2026.

"I think 2026 is potentially a bigger year for the sport because you have new rules coming in," Brown said.

The 2026 season will see major rule changes to both engine and car design regulations geared towards closer racing and improved sustainability.

"Ultimately, [we'd hope] that we're on top but people are very attracted to the development of Formula One and the continued innovation," he said. "I hope we've got cool cars and that we have even closer racing."

How to watch the Miami Grand Prix

Schedule:

• Practice: Friday, May 3 at 12:30 p.m. ET

• Sprint qualifying: Friday, May 3 at 4:30 p.m. ET

• Sprint race: Saturday, May 4 at noon ET

• Qualifying: Saturday, May 4 at 4:00 p.m. ET

• Grand Prix race: Sunday, May 5 at 4:00 p.m. ET

Cable: ESPN

Streaming: ESPN+, F1TV, fuboTV

How to watch: Catch the 2024 Formula One world championship season with fuboTV

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami Grand Prix: Zak Brown on McLaren's rise and programs outside F1