McLaren CEO Zak Brown has outlined three reasons why Formula 1 struggled to find a foothold in the United States before Liberty Media’s takeover.

F1 was a flying circus, and Bernie Ecclestone was the ringmaster until Liberty Media acquired the commercial rights of the sport from the Briton in 2017.

And since then, F1 has seen a stark rise in popularity in the US.

But before this, the sport struggled to capture the American market, despite having somewhat of a lukewarm reputation in the States.

Brown reflected on that period and broke down the three main reasons why F1 struggled.

“One, we never really found a permanent location, dating back to the ’70s,” he explained on David Novak’s podcast.

“You were Long Beach, then you were Watkins Glen, then you were Dallas, then you were a parking lot in Vegas for two years, then you were Phoenix.”

This meant that the paddock could never really call a single place within the US home.

That said, while circuits like Spa-Francorchamps and Monza became a staple in F1, US tracks were quick to lose their appeal owing to how sporadically they appeared on the calendar.

“Then you took five, six, seven, eight years off,” continued the American.

“Then we came back to Indianapolis. Then we had this ‘tiregate,’ as we called it, so we didn’t put on a good show. Then we disappeared again.

“You’re not going to have any sport be popular in North America if you’re not there or you have no date or location equity.”

How Liberty Media changed F1’s narrative in the US

Since 2012, the Circuit of the Americas in Texas has become the focal point of F1’s operations in the US.

With Liberty Media, the calendar now hosts three Grands Prix in the Country with the addition of Miami in 2022 and Las Vegas a year later.

“We also were a sport that was very exclusive, or perceived to be very exclusive and not very inclusive,” Brown admitted.

“That’s where, when Liberty came in and acquired the sport, they went, ‘Wow, the sport’s huge, but it doesn’t really engage with its fan base like the NBA’s, the NFL’s, the MLBs, even the Premier Leagues.

“I think that was fine for a long time, but now we’re in an era of engagement, not awareness. We weren’t engaging with our fans. We weren’t letting them inside. We were ‘look, don’t touch.'”

The American mass media conglomerate brought all the elements to F1 that the sport had been lacking, compared to the likes of global franchises such as the NFL and NBA.

Netflix was quick to latch onto the sport’s rising star and, in the end, only propelled it to further heights.

“When Liberty bought it and you had Netflix come in, we started kind of letting people see behind the curtains, people went, ‘Wow, this sport’s awesome. I’ve never seen that before. I’ve never been close to it before.

“Then over time, we got three races, starting with Austin, which is one of the best grands prix on our calendar.

“So you went from being not here and exclusive to being here, inclusive, and very focused on engagement.

“I think what Formula 1 has learned, and is continuing to learn, is that sport is entertainment.

“You’ll hear sometimes in Formula 1 where we go, ‘No, we’re not entertainment.’ It’s like, well, as far as I’m concerned, if you buy a ticket to sit in a seat to watch a movie, a motor race, a baseball game, a rock concert, a fireworks show, you’re going to be entertained.

“I think the sport has now embraced that there’s an entertainment aspect to what we do, and the fans are responding accordingly.”

READ MORE – Why the FIA isn’t worried about lap times with the 2026 F1 regulation overhaul

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown says the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic gave the team a crucial chance to push for a lower budget cap in Formula 1 and avoid bankruptcy.

By 2020, the Woking-based team’s future in F1 was precarious. Struggling to match the enormous budgets of rivals like Mercedes, McLaren lagged behind on track, with the demands of the hybrid era only amplifying the pressure.

Then COVID-19 hit. While the pandemic wreaked havoc across the sport, it also created a rare opportunity: a chance to push for tighter budget controls that would protect struggling teams. For McLaren, that window may have been the difference between survival and bankruptcy.

From languishing at the back of the grid, the team could now dream of returning to competitiveness with the new financial rules.

Brown has credited the timing of the pandemic with giving the team a critical lifeline that allowed McLaren to rebuild and aim for the top.

Speaking on the How Leaders Lead podcast, the American explained how the crisis created the perfect conditions to advocate for a lower budget cap — one that would prove vital for McLaren’s survival.

“That was huge,” he said of the budget cap conversation. “And we were lucky on timing from a COVID point of view.

“Obviously, COVID was a terrible thing, but it put the sport under an immense amount of pressure. And that was right when we were talking to the budget cap, which was actually going to be significantly higher.

“So we got a little bit lucky with the timing because it allowed me to push even harder to get the budget cap down.”

How the budget cap propelled McLaren back to the front of F1

According to the McLaren chief, the lower budget cap has transformed both the sport and his team’s prospects.

Before the pandemic, the British squad had not finished as high as third since 2012, but the team climbed back up the order amid the disruptions of the 2020 season.

After a brief slump, McLaren soared once again in 2024, securing its first Constructors’ Championship since 1998. This season, McLaren is on track for back-to-back success, with a strong chance of claiming a first Drivers’ Championship since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

Brown believes last year’s results highlight just how much the cost cap has levelled the playing field.

“Last year we had seven multiple winners,” he added. “First time I ever recall that amount of winners in Formula 1.”

“Four different teams that won races. The top three teams swapped the Constructors’ Championship late in the year. And that’s because now we’re all playing with the same size bat.”

READ MORE – How McLaren avoided possible ‘dictator’ scenario with F1 structure

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown says Charles Leclerc’s qualifying prowess in Formula 1 is frequently misrepresented by his pole-to-win record, a result of Ferrari’s performance limitations.

The Monegasque driver has converted just five of his 27 career poles into victories – an 18.5 per cent conversion rate – including only one win from his last 16 pole positions.

Leclerc’s qualifying performances are often sensational, demonstrating his speed and precision over a single lap.

On race day, however, the pole-to-win statistics can give the skewed impression that he struggles to turn pace into victories.

For a driver with eight Grand Prix wins, this seems inconsistent with his talent. Brown says the discrepancy stems from the Ferrari’s limitations rather than Leclerc himself, emphasising that the 27-year-old is capable of performing at a high level on both Saturday and Sunday.

His defence of a fellow driver comes in the same context that critics have scrutinised his own McLaren driver, Lando Norris, for struggles in converting poles into wins. Brown praised Norris while highlighting the broader point about misrepresented stats.

“Because there’s another stat out there from [Charles Leclerc], who I’m a big fan of, who’s not won that many races from pole, and I don’t think that’s anything on him,” he told Racer.

“I think that’s how awesome he is over a lap and maybe can carry a car over a lap that doesn’t have the ultimate race pace. So that’s not intended to be disparaging on him at all. I think he’s a huge talent.

“But my point is kind of a good narrative, and then when that narrative goes away, no one kind of, it’s almost like the retraction’s always on the back page. And I think Lando’s in a great place.”

Driver error, strategy, or the car? A closer look at Leclerc’s pole-to-win record

A closer look at Leclerc’s pole-to-win record shows that the reasons behind his low conversion rate are far from straightforward.

There are several factors that have hindered the Ferrari driver, from questionable team strategies to moments when the car itself has let him down.

The 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix provides a clear example of the latter. Starting from the front row, Leclerc briefly led the race but dropped back after a chassis issue, eventually finishing outside the podium behind the McLarens and George Russell.

Even Leclerc’s debut pole in F1 ended in disappointment, as reliability issues at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix denied him victory.

Team errors have also played a role. At the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, Leclerc was called into the pits from the lead for Intermediate tyres, only to be recalled again for slicks, dropping him from first to fourth.

At the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix, meanwhile, then Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel was allowed to undercut Leclerc, snatching victory right from his grasp.

Of course, not all setbacks were beyond his control. The 2022 French Grand Prix saw him crash out while leading, a rare instance where the loss stemmed from driver error rather than the team or car.

Six years ago in Austria, Leclerc was also involved in a wheel-to-wheel battle with Max Verstappen, who barged past on a recovery drive to take victory. While Leclerc may insist it wasn’t his fault, he was ultimately outmanoeuvred by the Dutchman in direct combat.

Taken together, these examples illustrate that Leclerc’s low pole-to-win ratio is the result of a complex mix of circumstances, and not a straightforward reflection of his talent or racecraft, as Brown points out.

READ MORE – How improved mental fortitude has helped Lando Norris dispel past F1 narrative

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed the team will discuss how the team will celebrate the likely Formula 1 title victory of one of its two drivers.

Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are in prime contention for the Drivers’ Championship and one of them, barring some unforeseen miracle, will emerge as the victor.

The Woking-based squad has been concise and articulate in its approach to how the two men have and will do battle for supremacy, being allowed to race without detriment to the team.

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has often spoken about the open conversations the team has had about how Piastri and Norris have been duelling for victory.

And now it appears that it is also forming a plan for how the team will mark the occasion of either one taking their first title, to ensure it is handled sensitively.

“We’ll just sit down and actually have a conversation and go ‘Right, one of you is going to win, it’s going to be the best day of your life – one of you is going to lose, how do you want us to handle that?” Brown told The Race. “You want us to jump up and down and celebrate this guy [who] won?

“We’re fully aware and sensitive to how you celebrate that situation.

“And I think we’ll just sit down with the drivers and come to an agreement: ‘One of you is not going to be the champion. How do you want us to act?’.

“That’s the way we think. It comes back to thinking about our people.”

Brown keen to break the ice with McLaren drivers

Brown explained how he feels any awkward situations similar to this likely eventuality should be dealt with, citing a particular moment after the British Grand Prix.

With Piastri losing out to Norris at Silverstone, Brown revealed how he was able to raise a laugh out of the Australian, and it seems he may be key in ensuring team harmony is maintained.

“Clearly, he was upset. Understandable,” he recalled. “And I tend to get – which is going to surprise all of you! – some stuff from social media, from fans.

“I got one note in particular, which was pretty off the charts. And so I’m walking with Oscar to the fanzone, and I was like, ‘Dude, you didn’t have to send me this note’! Because it was a pretty aggressive note from an Oscar fan. And I got a giggle out of him.

“And I was like, ‘All right, good. We’re just starting to kind of break the ice’.

“I’m a believer in dealing with stuff in the moment, if you can fix it in the moment – or if it’s something that you can’t fix in the moment, maybe you need to just let everyone cool down and deal with it on Monday. Maybe let’s just let everyone take the temperature down.”

Brown also said that he acts as a buffer of humour between the two drivers, and made the point that taking their feelings into account is essential

“I always try and break the ice,” he continued. “Kind of goof around a little bit with the drivers.

“So when I got the chuckle out of Oscar, it was like, ‘All right, good, we’re in the calming down phase’, right?

“That’s understanding the people here. But we have thought about it, I’ve thought about how do you deal with the winner and the loser, if you’d like.

“And that’ll just be a conversation we have with the drivers and go, ‘How would you like us to conduct ourselves?’ Because we’ll be very considerate about that approach.”

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown says Lando Norris has made major progress in handling the psychological demands of Formula 1, describing the 2025 title contender as being in a “great place”.

The Briton has long been his own harshest critic, but he is now said to have made strides in avoiding that mindset and dismissing the negative “narrative” surrounding his pole position record.

Last season, Norris was engaged in a titanic title battle with the unstoppable force that is Max Verstappen – a daunting challenge in his maiden fight for championship glory in F1.

It took its toll on the McLaren driver, who often struggled to convert poles into race victories and harshly criticised himself after mistakes – a prime example came at Silverstone, when he said “I blame myself today”, after missing out on victory to Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

In the midst of another title fight this season, with team-mate Oscar Piastri, Norris finds himself again having to cope with the inevitable setbacks that occur in racing.

He was tested in Canada, following a late-race collision with the Australian, and ultimately took responsibility for the incident.

Despite occasional self-criticism, Norris has bounced back quickly, following up his earlier wins in Australia and Monaco with further victories in Austria, Silverstone, and Hungary.

With five wins and four poles to his name, Norris appears to be in a healthier frame of mind – a view shared by Brown.

“I think Lando’s in a great place,” he told Racer. “There was also a time Lando couldn’t win from pole, according to the world, and he’s won four of the last five races [he’s started] from pole. So I think this kind of narrative around Lando is not accurate today.”

McLaren on Norris’ growth and mental resilience

The American boss offered more insight into Norris’ mindset, highlighting both his openness and the progress he has made.

“He’s open, kind of wears his emotions on his sleeve, so to speak,” Brown said. “I think everyone’s different, but I think he’s in a great place. I’ve never seen him in a better place.”

Reflecting on qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, he added: “I think the Lando of a year ago maybe would have been more critical on himself.

“He’s doing an awesome job. So, no, I think that is much like the he can’t win from pole stat. Now that he’s won four or five races from pole, no one seems to be talking about that.”

Norris himself has acknowledged his ongoing work to strengthen his mental fortitude. After a challenging Bahrain Grand Prix, he reflected on his tendency to dwell on negatives and explained how he’s learning to focus on the positives.

“It’s a balance, and I’m still trying to improve,” he said. “I have to remind myself of the good things — that I’m leading the championship, that I won the first race, and that I’ve been on the podium every race.

“I know I’m hard on myself, and that toughness is part of what makes me competitive in Formula 1. But I also need to focus more on the positives, which is the main area I’m working on.”

READ MORE – Why Lando Norris won’t resort to mind games in Oscar Piastri F1 championship battle

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown has confessed that Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris’ title fight in Formula 1 could mirror the team’s contentious 2007 intra-team battle.

Piastri and Norris are leading the way in the Drivers’ standings, separated by just nine points, the team’s MCL39 challenger enabling them to open up a huge gap on their rivals.

McLaren’s philosophy of ‘papaya rules,’ whereby both men are allowed to race each other but without negative consequence to the team, has been longstanding.

Despite the pair’s collision in Canada – which saw Norris retire – and some close shaves in both Austria and Hungary, the rule has largely been adhered to.

Even the Montreal moment was quickly nipped in the bud, with Norris taking public responsibility, and both men moving on from the incident.

This is a stark contrast to 2007, in which a rookie Lewis Hamilton and then-reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso battled amid extreme needle.

Incidents such as one at that year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, in which Alonso was adjudged to have deliberately held Hamilton up in the pit lane during qualifying, contributed to both men eventually losing out to Kimi Raikkonen.

Whilst it would take a minor miracle for neither driver not to win the championship now, Brown has acknowledged that a repeat is not an impossibility.

“We have our belief system, and we just stick to it,” he said. “We’re comfortable with how we go racing. 

“We also know we don’t always get it right. We are and always will be, and I think we always have been, a two car team. 

“We recognise the consequences of that could be 2007. You got two drivers that tie and lose to Kimi by a point.

“We could have won that Drivers’ Championship, but who do you pick? And then you run the risk of the guy you don’t pick, he’s out of here. 

“Our drivers are treated equally fairly. There’s nothing in their contract that gives one priority over the other, nor have they ever asked for that. They just want fair and equal treatment.”

Brown reiterated that the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships are treated with equal importance to the Woking-based squad.

“We know that benefits the team. They accept that, they’re cool with that, and we know the risk of that, if you’d like, from a driver point of view, is 2007,” he continued.

“But I think the downside of favouring one or the other is one then wants to leave, which is exactly what happened at the end of ’07 [anyway]. 

“And you put the Constructors’ Championship at risk, right? You see other teams favour one, and that kind of is beneficial to the Drivers’ Championship, but detrimental to the Constructors’. 

“Both championships are equally important to us.”

The differences between the McLaren 2007 and 2025 battle

Whilst comparisons of 2007 are not far from his mind, Brown also made the point that the circumstances are slightly different.

Alonso arrived at McLaren fresh from back-to-back titles, with Hamilton fresh into the sport, largely expected to be a more dutiful number two to the established Spaniard.

Despite Norris competing in his seventh season of F1, Piastri is now in his third, and therefore firmly embedded into the fraternity.

“If it was like year one, it’d be like ‘this rookie has given me a run for my money’,” Brown said.

“But I think now that they’re ‘veterans’, it doesn’t matter who’s been here longer, how long they’ve been in. 

“I think he [Norris] has just got a mindset of, ‘I want to win the championship and my team-mate’s my number one competition’.

“So I don’t think it’ll be easier or harder for either of them. 

“They both can smell the championship, and only one can win it. So I’m sure it’ll be hard on the one that doesn’t win the championship, assuming the other one does. But I don’t think tenure matters now. 

“I’m sure Fernando was going, ‘Man, this Lewis guy just got here, this is really irritating’. But he [Norris] doesn’t say anything about that.”

McLaren ‘talk about’ potential Piastri/Norris battles openly

Hamilton and Alonso’s battle spilt over into a sense of genuine off-track contention, something that has yet to happen between Norris and Piastri.

Despite the closeness of the racing and their obvious will to succeed, Brown is confident the pair’s relationship will not degenerate into something similar.

“I don’t think they’ll properly fall out,” the American said. “Because of the communication, trust and respect we all have, and they have for each other.

“We’re very fortunate to have the two personalities that we have. We love the challenge – like, I’m looking forward to them racing each other. So we like it.”

Brown revealed that the team meet the pair’s on-track battles head-on, and said that there is transparency in how both men race each other, with frank discussions.

“It’s not the elephant in the room. We talk about it,” he added.

“We meet every Sunday morning after we’ve seen how qualifying is going. They know each other’s strategy. We’re totally transparent.

“I’ve said to both of them individually, the windows of opportunity – has your team-mate ever done anything to piss you off? Never. And that’s what they both said. 

“So there’s competitiveness brewing. We’re not feeling any tension. As the championship builds, I’m sure that tension will grow, but like Montreal, I’m glad we got it out of the way, because it was a non-event. Lando owned it. Oscar understood it was a mistake. 

“We’re fully anticipating them swapping paint again at some point. I’m very confident it won’t be deliberate, which is where you then get into the problems. 

“They will have racing incidents in their further time here at McLaren. We know that. They know that. So we’re not afraid of that.

“I’m positive they’re never going to run each other off the track, and that’s where you get into bad blood. 

“It seems like from the outside looking in, when you’ve seen battles between other team-mates, you’re seeing it brewing, and you kind of go like ‘have they jumped on that, or are they just kind of letting it’? 

“We’ll take the air out of the balloon right away if we feel like anything’s bubbling up. But we’ve not seen any of it.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris warns F1 must avoid ‘fake’ or ‘scripted’ racing with 2026 regulations

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown has admitted his rivalry with Christian Horner “went too far” at times in Formula 1, but he hopes a change at Red Bull will see relations improve.

Tensions between the pair peaked in the 2024 season, when Horner called Brown a “pr*ck” in Netflix’s Drive to Survive. This followed Brown’s call for a “thorough” and “fully transparent” investigation into Horner over allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward a female colleague – claims Horner was later cleared of following an internal investigation.

The rivalry also flared over a tyre cooling dispute that originated from Singapore last year and spilt over into the 2025 Miami Grand Prix.

Brown mocked Red Bull’s complaints by drinking from a bottle labelled ‘tire water’, to which Horner retorted by suggesting he’d bring Brown “a Red Bull [drink] if he needs some energising.”

Despite the recent acrimony, Brown expressed optimism about McLaren’s relationship off the track with Red Bull now that Laurent Mekies is at the helm.

“I’m happy he’s in the role he’s in,” Brown told The Race. “I like Laurent, and I think that’ll be healthy, and maybe we can get back to focusing on competition on the track.

“While there’s always going to be some political aspects to the sport, I think it’s going to be healthier with Laurent.

“I’m a fan of Laurent. I’ve known him for a long time, and I think it’ll be good to go racing against Laurent.”

Reflecting on the tense history between McLaren and Red Bull, Brown admitted the relationship had “gone too far”.

“There’s always going to be politicking, and let’s try and shut down their flexi wings and that stuff,” he said.

“But when you start getting into frivolous allegations, I think that’s just going too far.

“If I look up and down pitlane now, I see us fighting each other hard politically, but there being a line that’s not crossed.

“I think that line got crossed before, and I think it was unhealthy. So I think that we’ll see a little bit of a change for the better.”

McLaren CEO eyes respectful but fierce rivalry with Red Bull

Brown envisions the McLaren-Red Bull rivalry evolving into the kind of strong but respectful competition McLaren enjoys with Ferrari and Mercedes.

Brown praised Ferrari’s Team Principal Fred Vasseur for joining in McLaren’s celebration of Lando Norris’s maiden F1 victory in Miami last year, labelling it as a sign of a healthy relationship.

“I love the way we raced Ferrari,” added Brown. “Fred kind of started it by celebrating our Miami win.

“I’ve known Fred a long time. He’s a proper racer, and the way we went racing – make no mistake about it, we want to beat each other – but I enjoyed that. I thought that was really good for the sport.

“From a fan’s point of view, the drama of the villain stuff, I think works. But I also think the celebratory ‘fight it out on track, but then kind of photobomb each other’, which that all kind of just happened, that’s really good.

“That’s a more fun way to go racing, and can be just as entertaining as the good cop, bad cop thing.”

Looking ahead, Brown stressed the importance of trust and co-operation between teams off the track for the benefit of the sport.

“I also think it’s important for the benefit of the sport that we all can work together, and there’s a higher level of trust,” he said.

“That if we sit down and have a conversation on a topic, that we think that there can be some confidentiality to that, and it’s just not an automatic: ‘Well, I’m going to use that as a political weapon.’

“I think we’re going to be in a better place to be a little bit more unified and a little bit more trusting that, while we’re fighting it out on the track, we can have a conversation about what’s good for the sport — and that won’t get manipulated in a way for political reasons and taken out of context.”

READ MORE – How McLaren has avoided development hurdles to dominate F1 2025

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes Christian Horner was bound to see the exit door with Red Bull’s Formula 1 situation “getting worse” in the last couple of years.

Horner was shockingly axed by the Milton Keynes-based squad earlier this month, with ex-Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies being named his replacement.

The 51-year-old had been instrumental in Red Bull’s multiple championship successes and had been at the helm since the team’s inception back in 2005.

That said, with the team’s dwindling performances since midway through last season and tension behind the scenes, the board decided to part ways with the Briton.

With Chalerm Yoovidhya, the son of Red Bull’s co-founder Chaleo Yoovidhya, giving up the family’s majority stake in Red Bull GmbH recently, Horner was operating on borrowed time.

Rival boss Brown, who hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with Horner, said that his sacking was only a matter of time.

“Maybe the timing, but not the result,” he told TSN when asked if he was caught out by Red Bull’s decision to fire Horner with immediate effect.

“There’s been a lot of drama there the last couple of years and it doesn’t seem like that drama has been calming down, maybe even been getting worse.

“So, I’m not surprised, anytime in the middle of the season.”

Brown lost on Horner’s F1 options

Ever since the news broke out that Horner had been relieved of his duties as Team Principal and CEO at Red Bull, rumours started flooding in about his next destination.

The Briton is being linked with a move to either Ferrari or Alpine, but Brown doesn’t have any insights to offer on Horner’s future.

“I think given his age and his history in motor racing, I’d be surprised if he didn’t show up somewhere in motor racing,” Brown added.

“But I don’t know his other interests, whether he wants to go run a football team or what have you. We’ll see.”

Instead, having sealed the Constructors’ Championship in 2024, the former American sponsorship mogul wants to focus on wrapping up both titles this year with McLaren.

“We’re head down on our championship. They’ve got Max [Verstappen] still knocking on the door, so we’ve got to pay attention to that,” he concluded.

READ MORE — The warning Christian Horner delivered to Red Bull prior to F1 departure

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown has spoken of his hope that Mercedes do not sign Max Verstappen, saying the “awesome” Dutchman would be joining a Formula 1 team “on the rise.”

Brown’s papaya squad has so far been the class of the field this year, winning nine out of the 12 Grands Prix contested, leaving all challengers floundering in the wake of its MCL39 challenger.

Verstappen has been the only driver who has got remotely close to the Woking-based outfit, taking two superb wins in Suzuka and Imola.

But Red Bull has been in something a tumultuous period, having lost a number of key personnel in the last year, culminating in the shocking firing of boss Christian Horner two week ago.

Mercedes has had some indifferent performances across the season, but through the performances of George Russell, there has been an air of consistency.

And with the increasing speculation Verstappen will join the German marque next year, ami whispers that it has produced the best powertrain for the new regulations, Brown is unsettled by the prospect of the two coming together.

“I think Mercedes is a team on the rise,” Brown told The Sports Agents Podcast.

“Red Bull at the moment has challenges. It doesn’t mean that they can’t fix those challenges,” he added.

“But Max in a Mercedes is pretty uncomfortable to think about because he’s awesome!

“So I think I’d rather he stay where he is.”

Losing Verstappen would be ‘a disaster’ for Red Bull – Brown

As McLaren started to become the main challenger to ursurp Red Bull’s throne as the dominant team in F1, Brown has, in a sense, replaced Toto Wolff as Horner and Red Bull’s primary agent provocateur.

The American is no stranger to a good-natured ribbing of the Milton Keynes-based squad, and if Netflix’s Drive To Survive is to be believed, often taking boyish glee in its misfortune.

With Verstappen now one of few public-facing figures left in the team, Brown is all too aware that a potential departure could spell huge repercussions for the team.

“I think it would be a disaster for Red Bull if they lost Max,” he said.

Early rumours have suggested that Ford’s collaboration with Red Bull’s powertrains division is so far giving indications that the 2026 car may not be as competitive as it hoped.

And if Mercedes has been able to produce an engine which will be the fastest, then it, along with McLaren, could continue to head up the grid.

READ MORE – Oliver Bearman backs Max Verstappen’s view over ‘unnatural’ F1 racing guidelines

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown has explained how he and team boss Andrea Stella received “value” from the insight of former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle at a recent test alongside Hollywood star Brad Pitt.

The Woking-based squad handed the reins of its 2023 challenger, the MCL60, to Brundle and Pitt, the star of ‘F1: The Movie’ at a TPC [Testing of Previous Cars] test at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Brundle, who raced in F1 between 1984 and 1996 – including a one year stint with McLaren – and Pitt joined up for the test which formed the basis of a segment shown before the British Grand Prix.

The 66-year-old gave the Hollywood star considerable praise for his handling of the car, a skill honed from months of practice in preparation for shooting the film.

“He was good,” Brundle said. “You know, he was solid out there and it’s not easy to jump in.

“There’s a lot going on and, I said in the piece, like my mental overload of, you know, suddenly the scenery’s coming at you and you’ve got a thousand horsepower under your right foot, and you just get a little beep in your ear and just keep pulling through the gears.

“Then you open the DRS and the world seems to be on warp speed. Then you’ve gotta brake somewhere and you’re not really sure where.

“And then to try to talk while you’re doing it, but it’s a magnificent experience.”

Brundle extended his thanks to Brown and Stella for providing to car to himself and Pitt, describing its TPC programme as “gold dust in terms of lappery.”

“Obviously Lando [Norris] and Oscar [Piastri] were out there, too, and Alex Dunne was out there,” he added.

“So to give the car up to us and me and Brad was very brave of you, Zak, McLaren, and very generous of you!”

Brundle’s feedback ‘useful’ to McLaren – Brown

In the 28 years Brundle has been an F1 broadcaster, he has consistently continued to drive classic and current cars for TV, and in doing so, provides an expert take on all areas of the driving experience.

So it was not particularly risky to entrust the control of the car to him, a sentiment echoed by Brown, who responded in kind to his gratitude.

“It was our pleasure, Martin,” he said.

“I’m a big fan, and we knew you’d bring her back in one piece.

“But actually, Andrea and I were speaking about it the other day; some of the feedback that you gave us on driver mindset stuff, we thought was quite interesting and quite useful.

“So we got value out of it ourselves as well!”

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