McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is wary one of the team’s rivals could erase their lead over the competition if they introduce a successful upgrade to their car.
The next Formula 1 round will take place in Miami, where last year McLaren introduced an upgrade to its car which made them regular contenders for victory. Lando Norris scored his first win that weekend and put McLaren on course to win the constructors’ championship.The team has built on that advantage so far this year, winning four of the first five grands prix. However Brown noted their margin of victory was slim at the last round in Jeddah and believes the competitive picture could change quickly.
“I think you saw what was it four teams there within five seconds, in a flat-out race,” Brown told Channel 4. “There was no Safety Car that bunched everyone back up.”
Sunday’s race wasn’t quite that close – the first four cars were covered by nine seconds, though that included both McLarens, and fourth team Mercedes were 27 seconds adrift at the flag. However Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes were within a tenth of a second of each other in qualifying.
“So I kind of feel like everyone’s just one upgrade away from being that lead car,” Brown continued.
“You saw what we did last year from Miami. Probably the lead was bigger this time last year with Red Bull and yet they finished third in the championship. So we’re well-grounded in the reality of how quickly the sport can change.”
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Red Bull had the fastest car over a single lap at six of the first seven rounds last year. Over the final five rounds, four different teams set the quickest time.
Since the first round of the championship McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari have all brought minor upgrades to their cars. Mercedes, however, have left their W16 unchanged in that time.
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Moi
24th April 2025, 8:29
I see Zak is channelling his inner Toto
Ferdi
24th April 2025, 8:59
COTD
El Pollo Loco
25th April 2025, 11:08
lol
He’s the Brown who cried Wolff.
F180 (@f180)
25th April 2025, 13:36
He wishes to be Toto and own a team, that is why he was so vocal against Andretti. He has his sight to own RB by forcing Red Bull to sell
El Pollo Loco
28th April 2025, 2:09
lol, what?
S Arkazam
24th April 2025, 8:48
There is something weird about F1. In all other businesses leaders boast publicly about their superior products and how they are better than the competition.
Yet in F1 it’s always the others who are better, and often only an out-of-this-world driver who makes the difference.
I know the drivers are often still young and might need validation, but they wouldn’t mind some of the kudos to go to the other team-members who don’t have the multi-million pay checks.
Ferdi
24th April 2025, 9:03
I have seen it with most Sales Directors I have worked with as well. Cover yourself in advance in case the results do not live up to expectations, preferably by pointing to factors beyond your control. It’s common behaviour for those that are more sharky/competitive of nature. I guess it makes them sleep better at night, or at least I hope so because it doesn’t serve much use otherwise.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
24th April 2025, 18:36
its like saying people are smart. Probably one of the worst compliments one can receive.
I would say McLaren have a good floor, and they have a good way to control the temperature of the tires, as observed last year during the Silverstone GP.
They also have the best power unit on the grid.
MichaelN
24th April 2025, 10:42
What you see in a lot of sports is a remarkable ability to focus on one’s own performance, and not get bogged down in comparisons. While it may seem like Brown is devalueing the work of his own team, it’s probably a real fear that they’re never quite doing enough to keep winning. That fear of failure is often the big motivator, rather than the desire to win, which never gives more than a brief and fading sense of accomplishment.
S Arkazam
24th April 2025, 11:10
Other businesses do this as well, but then internally (it’s motivation for their staff in the end).
Meanwhile externally they praise their staff by repeating what a good job they’ve done by creating superior product (also a motivator).
MichaelN
24th April 2025, 17:27
That’s fair.
I suppose in F1 there is also the mystique of winning in a close battle, or even as the underdog. And, though less so now given the regulations are on the way out, a hesitation about attracting the attention of the rulemakers. It wasn’t until years later that Mercedes admitted it was essentially cruising in 2014.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
24th April 2025, 12:09
The teams don’t directly sell their product in the same way that other businesses do though. You can’t go out and buy a McLaren F1 car, so bragging about your F1 car being a couple of tenths of a second faster around a circuit does less for your brand than if you were selling the car itself. McLaren does at least sell its own road cars, so there is some benefit to highlighting their engineering skills, but then you have teams like Redbull which are selling a brand/product completely unrelated to motor vehicles.
Overall though, I don’t think Zak is really talking down his team’s success or how strong the car is. He is more highlighting that the margins are small and it wouldn’t take much for the pecking order to change, which is true, and you only need to look to last year to see a particularly prominent example.
w0o0dy
24th April 2025, 9:10
What Zak Brown is doing here is setting the stage for the clampdown on the flexi wings. They will get hit and other teams are bringing upgrades. So now Brown can claim it’s the effect of the upgrades, not the effect of the clampdown. So they didn’t have an unfair advantage from bending (pun intended) rules.
We see through this Zak.
In reality no tram ever wins 0,3 s with an upgrade within the rules, especially not near the end of the development curve under the current rule set. It’s completely unbelievable.
slowmo (@slowmo)
24th April 2025, 9:56
That’s just not true though, if you have a design with a serious aero fault you can easily deliver over 0.5s upgrade if you fix the core flaw. Alpine’s performance at the end of the last year showed just how much you can gain if you fix a serious issue with your cars aero. Sure if your car is working very well then making a big jump is not easy so it’s unlikely Mclaren or Red Bull will make so big jumps but I can see Ferrari for example making that sort of jump given the clear handling issues with their car.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
24th April 2025, 18:40
Alpine are quicker in qualifying because they don’t have the same fuel efficiency as the Merc PU.
Alpine are benefiting from grid order due to how difficult it is to over take.
However, over a full race, especially one that is very fuel limiting, Alpine will most likely fall back at a faster rate. But this is really contingent on the rate at which the tires degrade.
If the tires drop off too quickly, it’s like wet weather racing, and Alpine can run lower fuel rates, if the tires hold strong, they are in deep. (my theory).
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
24th April 2025, 10:31
Your comment is more unbelievable. Your personal view of Zak and the team shines through.
David BR (@david-br)
24th April 2025, 17:32
Have to admit, exactly the same thought as w0o0dy’s crossed my mind when I saw the article and I’m not hostile to Zak Brown or the McLaren team. I think both things can be true: Brown’s right that another team’s upgrade could put them level or ahead, the cars are extremely close. But the new restrictions could affect McLaren more and then we end up with a narrative like last season’s when Red Bull – and Verstappen in particular – suddenly lost performance relative to McLaren and the other teams after some FIA ‘clarifications’. Just normal F1 shenanigans.
Bob
24th April 2025, 16:32
It’s common in all sports, not just F1. Sporting teams like to downplay any advantage for 2 reasons; to lower expectations, and to reduce the risk of targeted regulation changes.
For the former, teams know how competitive top end sport is and how hard everyone is pushing to win, even if the odds are against them. So even when you have a healthy advantage, other teams can still beat you, and when they do you’re going to receive a lot of backlash. Look at the backlash on Norris for losing just 1 race to Verstappen in Suzuka. That’s just when fans think you have a huge advantage. That’s becomes a million times worse when you start going out and saying you have a huge advantage and should win easily. Imagine if Red Bull said at the start of last year that they’d dominate 2024 just like they did in 2023? Imagine all the memes and backlash when McLaren started beating them.
For the latter, sport regulators want there to be close competition. If the competition isn’t close, they’ll tweak the regulations to make it closer. If 1 team in particular has a huge advantage, they’ll target the changes to take that away from them. This is especially true in motorsport, and even more so in F1, compared to other sports. So teams will downplay and hide their advantage to prevent the rules being changed to stop them, so that they can remain competitive for longer.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
24th April 2025, 11:07
Ordinary id agree, but this year most teams are focused on the new 2026 Reg’s so “major” upgrades probably won’t happen.
A couple of tweaks to any of the top 4 might make a difference, but if it establishes a clear dominance it’d be more fluke than design.
In reality 3 teams are already pretty close and I expect this season to be more Drive/strategy than car.
Leo B
24th April 2025, 12:16
Being a worrier is not a desirable feature in a leader. I worry about McLaren (but then I’m no leader).
Coventry Climax
24th April 2025, 12:40
Looks like Brown finally figured out how things are supposed to work in a competitive sport.
Or is this an appeal to the FiA to do something about it?
Jogo
24th April 2025, 13:36
This is a good response to narratives like, ‘Oh, everyone says you have the best car, so it’s definitely a fact, therefore you’re the favorites, meaning success is guaranteed, meaning you have to finish every race with a one-two finish, and if not, it’s simultaneously your failure and the holy, extraterrestrial heroism of your rivals, how dare you disagree?’
Of course, the favorites in F1 always downplay their strength, and those who are very close simulate weaknesses to later sell their results as a superhuman effort, but right now the situation is really quite unstable with McLaren’s uncertain advantage.
Dex
24th April 2025, 13:58
So you’re trying to motivate your competitors to beat you? Either that, or you’re full of it.