ZAK BROWN PULLED OFF THE IMPOSSIBLE TO TOPPLE HORNER AND WOLFF
When Zak Brown said a few weeks ago that he would “rather lose the title” to Max Verstappen than favour either of his drivers, Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, he very nearly found out.
In the end, McLaren’s bombastic American chief executive was celebrating double delight in the desert; the team’s first drivers’ title since 2008, coming off the back of the team’s second consecutive constructors’ crown, which was secured in Singapore.
Actually, Brown did not do all that much celebrating on Sunday night. While new champion Lando Norris was belting out “We are the champions” with friends, family and team-mates at the LED-encased W Hotel that overlooks the Yas Marina circuit, Brown was already on a flight back to the UK. “I’m getting on a plane,” he revealed to Ted Kravitz on Sky Sports F1 of his plans for the evening, not long after Norris had parked up. “It’s important to celebrate back at the factory.”
Brown could be forgiven if he breathed a large sigh of relief at 35,000ft.
McLaren got away with it in the end. But the inquest, had Verstappen managed to complete his comeback – from 104 points down after Zandvoort – would have been savage. One colleague even asked me last week whether Brown could survive such an embarrassment. Of course, that was ludicrous. Even if they failed, nine other teams would love to have had a season as “poor” as McLaren’s. But you knew what he meant.
That McLaren got over the line in the end will strengthen Brown’s standing in F1. He will have woken up this morning at the top of the pile, having finally ended the Christian Horner-Toto Wolff era, which stretched all the way back to 2010.
There are some who find Brown’s brash American persona a bit too much. Horner famously called the 54-year-old a “p----” on Drive To Survive after leaving a tense press conference in Bahrain at the start of last year, in which the McLaren chief executive called for “greater transparency” in Red Bull’s investigation into the allegations made against their former team principal. Horner was subsequently cleared (apparently the word was “c--t” in the original cut but the final version was sanitised).
The feeling was very much mutual. “Oh, it’s genuine, not a lot of love lost there,” Brown told Telegraph Sport at the season opener in Melbourne in March, when asked how much of their rivalry was for the cameras.
Nico Rosberg, on Sky Sports F1, criticised Brown for showing a lack of “empathy” to Piastri at the end of the race on Sunday. The Australian was being consoled by his race engineer, Tom Stallard, on missing out on the title, when Brown interrupted the conversation to say: “What a season, what a season. You’re a star. Seven wins. We love ya. We’ll do it again next year. Thank you Oscar for everything you’ve done. What a year.”
“That’s his most horrible moment in his racing career,” Rosberg told Sky Sports F1. “Maybe Zak could have had a little more empathy there, rather than celebrating. He could have said ‘next year will be your year’, but it’s difficult for Zak because he’s so ecstatic at the same time.”
That is the thing about Brown. He is full on. He does not have an off switch. He famously answers emails in the middle of the night. He is ultra-competitive – Brown’s life story, growing up in Los Angeles, being expelled from multiple schools, creating his own fortune, is worth looking up.
And that is a good thing. Formula One needs characters, and Brown is certainly one of those. Since Horner was fired in July, there has been a noticeable lack of crackle in the paddock. Wolff and Brown get on far too well (it helps that Mercedes are not currently competing with McLaren for the title); Wolff is best buddies with Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal; Laurent Mekies, who replaced Horner at Red Bull, plays it extremely straight… etc. Brown is one of the few who will stand up and say interesting things. Look at the way he dealt with the Australian senator who suggested the team were biased in Norris’s favour. “Uninformed and uneducated about our sport.” Bosh.
Brown and team principal Andrea Stella are also to be applauded for sticking to their “Papaya Rules” principles, as I argued heading into the Abu Dhabi weekend. Yes, it could have bitten them in the backsides had they lost out to Verstappen on the final day. But in the long run, it would have been even more damaging to have betrayed them. McLaren have built a strong culture under Brown, who has completely transformed the Woking team’s fortunes since becoming CEO in 2018. McLaren very nearly went under during Covid. Now they are back on top, celebrating both titles, with two drivers who believe they will be given equal opportunities.
Piastri – who was graciousness personified on Sunday night – was happy to acknowledge this. “I think at the end of the day, they gave us both as good a chance as the team could have to fairly fight for a world championship, and that’s all you can ask for,” the Australian concluded.
Brown deserves immense credit for that. “We let them race until the end,” Brown told Sky Sports F1 before jetting out of Abu Dhabi on Sunday night, adding that Piastri was “a future world champion”. “Most people thought that would be impossible to pull off. It’s a dream racing with these two guys.”
2025-12-08T14:40:41Z