The "papaya" team has passed Red Bull in the F1 constructors' championship, sets sights on the drivers' title.
Zakary Challen Brown, the man behind McLaren Racing’s turnaround, is a former racer himself who went for his first Grand Prix at age 10.
Racing aficionados are now savouring the possibility of a battle akin to 2021’s Verstappen versus Lewis Hamilton clash, which was decided on the final lap of the year. I thought readers might better appreciate a flavour of the actual conversation, rather than a narration. Here, therefore, are the main threads of the chat, lightly edited for brevity and clarity. The sequence of some questions has been rearranged.
I love the Singapore race. It is massively important for the sport and one of the most difficult for drivers. The tough track, the weather. The humidity. The drivers would be sitting on ice packs if they were not in the car. We are taking it one weekend at a time. Leading the championship, there is a lot of spotlight on us but that is not going to change our approach to what has been so successful for us this year.
ME: A few years ago, McLaren were struggling. Last couple of years, you were occasionally good. This year, you are leading the pack. You have had four wins and it looks like you might be able to catch Max Verstappen this year. Do you think that could happen? ZAK: It is all about people. I changed some of our leadership at the end of 2022, and the new leadership led by Andrea Stella has done a wonderful job. My job is to find the right people and resources and stand out of the way. The leadership has unlocked the talent inside McLaren. We started 2023 with a bad race car, and out of 1,000 people in the racing team, we changed three – and they were in senior positions. The rest of the people are the same.
ZAK: We made some mistakes this year and let a couple of races get away. We are a young team working together. One or two of those races we should have won. At Silverstone, our tyre selection and timing of pit stops, and we ended up finishing second and fourth. And to think we were running the race first and second. Perhaps we could have won Montreal as well. Then, Lando crashed with Max in Austria. These things happen. We definitely had the pace to win that race.
ZAK: Yes, I have known him a long time. He’s as fast as any racing driver in the world. He’s won in everything he has done in all his junior formula. So, any time a driver wins in everything he does and in his first year it is clear he is a special talent. ME: In hindsight, poaching Oscar Piastri from Alpine seems to have been a good bet. How do Lando and he get along?
ME: I am told you are quite a collector. Aside from famous race cars, you collect historical documents?
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