Most of Formula 1’s powerbrokers come from Europe’s upper crust, but Zak Brown is an exception. One of the few prominent Americans in F1, the McLaren Racing CEO grew up in Southern California, attending races such as the Long Beach Grand Prix. He came up with an ingenious way to get himself behind the wheel—while in high school, he appeared on Wheel of Fortune’s Teen Week and used his winnings to buy a go-kart—and went on to race in various circuits in the U.S. and Europe. Like many drivers, Brown had to chase sponsorships, and he continually displayed an enterprising spirit. “I had a lot of people that over the years said, ‘Hey, you’re better at marketing than racing cars,’” he recalls, “which you don’t want to hear when you’re racing cars, but it turns out they were probably right.”
Brown soon leaned all the way into his aptitude for business. In 1995, he founded JMI, which grew to become the largest motorsport marketing agency in the world. After selling the company, he returned to competition, joining McLaren in 2016 and taking over the British automaker’s racing division in 2018. He has spent the years since trying to return the once-dominant team—which scored 12 F1 Drivers’ Championships and 8 Constructors’ Championships between 1974 and 2008 but has won none since—to its former glory. “We’re on a journey to get back to competing for the world championship,” says Brown, who American fans will see this month at the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
“We’re in the middle of that journey, and we have a couple more years to go.”
On joining McLaren:
“When I sold [JMI] and then the company that I sold to got sold, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to be in the garage. I wanted to be competing. McLaren had always been my favorite team, and I liked that they’ve got a history and different forms of motorsports. Formula 1 is my favorite, but I love IndyCars, I love sports cars—then there’s new things like Formula E and Extreme E. The shareholders at McLaren said, ‘Rebuild our brand, rebuild our Formula 1 team, and once you get that in a good place, expand into other forms of motorsports.’ As tough as it was at the start, there’s not a day that’s gone by where I haven’t been thrilled with the decision I made.”
On Formula 1’s rise in the U.S.:
“When Liberty Media came in and acquired the sport, they recognized what a diamond in the rough they had: Here’s this huge sport that the U.S. would fall in love with if they understood the characters, had some access—which is not how Formula 1 had operated. So they opened it up, and Netflix came. Austin has been a huge success. Now they’ve got Miami. Our sport has always been great, but now we’re letting people in. That’s the difference.”
On playing catch-up:
“We’re a technology-driven sport, so unlike some stick-and-ball sports, where it’s just, play better, we have to catch up where we’re technically behind. As an example, we’ve invested in a new wind tunnel, but it’s not going to be done until next year; you develop your car a year in advance, so we won’t have a car that was developed in an optimized wind tunnel until 2024. So that’s where we’re still playing some catch-up: We have all the right players on the field, but we don’t have the latest, greatest equipment.”
On the future of fuel:
“What’s great about motor racing is it’s an R&D platform. We’ve got hybrid technology today; you’ve got electrification with some of the racing series that we’re in. Motorsports is a great platform for developing these technologies. It’s early days, and clearly electric is huge for the future, but biofuels, ethanol, hydrogen—we become a platform to develop these various technologies. My personal opinion is there won’t be a one-size-fits-all [solution].”
On learning from mistakes:
“I say in the office, ‘Mistakes are OK; don’t make the same one twice.’ Mistakes are learning experiences. When you lose, you learn, but don’t lose again for the same reason. And I’ve always tried to surround myself with very smart, experienced people—people who maybe already made mistakes that are inevitable and who can help me either avoid them or respond to them quicker.”
Next Up: Formula 1 Driver Mick Schumacher Follows in the Tracks of His Legendary Father
