From internal politics and unhappy sponsors to world championship glory, Zak Brown has opened up on the decisions that transformed McLaren into an F1 powerhouse once again
Just a few years ago, McLaren was fighting to escape the bottom end of the Formula 1 grid amid internal instability, frustrated sponsors and declining results.
Now, the Woking-based squad sits firmly among the sport’s elite once again after completing one of the most remarkable turnarounds in modern F1 history.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has lifted the lid on the foundations behind that revival, revealing how strong leadership, transparency and reconnecting with the team’s identity helped spark its dramatic resurgence.
Brown arrived at McLaren in 2016 before stepping into the CEO role two years later during one of the darkest periods in the team’s recent history. At the time, McLaren had fallen far from its glory days, struggling for competitiveness and consistency while internal tensions created further problems behind the scenes.
Speaking to media including RacingNews365, Brown admitted the situation he inherited was far from ideal.
“It’s all about people,” Brown explained.
“When I started, the team had definitely gone through tough times.
“We were ninth in the championship, we didn’t have many partners. A couple of partners we had weren’t very happy.
“Our fans were disgruntled, [there were] politics inside the racing team. Other than that, everything was great!”
Despite the difficult circumstances, Brown insisted he always believed McLaren’s problems were solvable due to the immense heritage and reputation still attached to the iconic Formula 1 team.
“What was great was our brand,” he continued. “It wasn’t in a great place, but you can’t take away the history and the heritage.
“We knew we had something there to work with, and a lot of championships and race wins in our existing racing team, but they just weren’t working well together.
“So I actually felt ‘this is very fixable’.”
That belief eventually translated into one of the sport’s most impressive rebuilds. McLaren steadily climbed back through the midfield before returning to race-winning form in 2024, securing a long-awaited constructors’ championship before adding a drivers’ title the following season.
A major figure in that rise has been team principal Andrea Stella, who has earned widespread praise throughout the paddock for overseeing McLaren’s technical and operational evolution.
However, Brown also pointed to an early symbolic decision that proved crucial in reconnecting the team with its supporters — the return of the famous papaya livery.
“The first thing we did is we went back to our papaya, which is our history,” Brown revealed.
“We did that because that’s what the fans told us they wanted.
“And so we listen to our fans. Someone said to me at the time ‘you’re only doing that because the fans want it’.
“[I said] ‘that’s exactly why we’re doing it’.”
The papaya rebrand quickly became a defining image of McLaren’s new era, helping restore enthusiasm among supporters while strengthening the team’s commercial appeal.
Brown believes that rebuilding trust internally and externally ultimately laid the foundations for McLaren’s return to championship contention.
“We’ve got great people in the team, that just needed some leadership, guidance, teamwork, [and] transparency,” he added.
McLaren’s remarkable recovery now stands as one of Formula 1’s benchmark success stories, with the team transforming from a struggling backmarker into a consistent title contender in less than a decade. With stability now firmly established under Brown and Stella, few in the paddock doubt McLaren’s ability to remain at the front of the grid for years to come.