McLaren CEO Zak Brown Still Gets FOMO About Racing Cars
When Zak Brown joined McLaren a decade ago, the future CEO wasn’t exactly signing on to a winning enterprise: Once a Formula One juggernaut, the team had slumped into irrelevance on the race track—with an internal financial crisis to match.
Ten years later, the McLaren turnaround story is well known among millions of F1 fans around the world, and clear even to racing novices like me. Brown, a former driver turned marketing executive, has revitalized the team and its accompanying business. In 2024, McLaren won its first constructors’ title since 1998, and in 2025 the team—helmed by drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri—secured 12 wins, including the Monaco Grand Prix. Money is pouring in: Brown tells me that McLaren is approaching $500 million in annual sponsorship revenue (the team barely scraped together $50 million when he took over a decade ago).
If you’re an F1 aficionado, or know and love...
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