From washing cars to running McLaren

Zak Brown wanted to be a racing driver. The problem was, he had no money.

As a teenager, he appeared on the TV gameshow Wheel of Fortune then sold the watches he won to fund enrolment at a karting school. A few years later he left his home in California and flew to the UK, to pursue the dream of so many young drivers.

His first job in motorsport was washing cars at a Donington Park racing school while lodging on an air mattress at a mate's house in Sheffield - a life Brown now describes as "torture."

Brown realised he had a talent for finding sponsorship to keep his burgeoning career afloat, but eventually had to concede he lacked the speed to make it all the way to the top as a driver. Undaunted, he returned home - surviving an earthquake that destroyed his house - and started to broker sponsorship deals on the US racing scene.

After building up a specialist motor racing agency, Just Marketing International, Brown eventually sold his company for more than £70million to a sports marketing group. While that helped fund a new life as a 'gentleman' driver in sportscars, the goal still remained Formula 1.

He continued to broker deals in grand prix racing and then came a choice: join Formula 1 as the 'new Bernie', or take control of McLaren. The racer in him chose the challenge of running a racing team with the remit to get them back to the front of the grid.

As the sun sets over the Abu Dhabi paddock, and the 2019 season draws to a close, Brown gives us a detailed account of how a Californian kid, who was always in trouble at school, became the boss of one of the most famous teams in F1.

F1 Racing: Before we talk about your early life, we know you've had a long career in motor racing as a driver. So, in a race of today's team principals, would you be the fastest?

Zak Brown: I'm sure I'd be faster than Mattia [Binotto]. And Otmar [Szafnauer] too. He might have done a bit of racing - but I'm faster than him. [Christian] Horner and I used to race against each other and we were pretty even [they were in different classes in British F3 - Ed]. So, I'd be faster than him. Toto [Wolff] is fast... but likes to crash, so I'd say I'd beat him. He was three seconds off Martin Brundle around Austin once. Yes, I think I'm going to make the cocky comment that I am the fastest team boss in Formula 1...

F1R: Growing up on the outskirts of Los Angeles, California, tell us how you caught the motor racing bug?

ZB: My first racing experience was Long Beach, 1981. I still have the programme - signed by Eddie Cheever. I was about ten, but I remember it like it was yesterday. My Dad would also take my brother and me to Riverside International Raceway for NASCAR and GT/IMSA sportscar races a couple of times a year. He wasn't a big fan - we never watched it on TV or anything like that. My dad didn't have a racing background, he worked in the music business, while mum was a travel agent.

"We ended up having dinner with Mario Andretti, who had dominated the race. I got to ask one question, which was 'how do you get started in racing?' And he said 'go-karts'" Zak Brown

Riverside was a proper circuit. I remember going for the six-hour race and still have all the programmes, as I'm a bit of a collector of things like that. I used to collect Hot Wheels toy cars too. We also used to go to the Pomona drag strip. Tony Nancy, a famous drag racer, had a race shop two miles from our house, so I would walk there after school.

The next thing I did was go on the TV gameshow Wheel of Fortune in Teen Week, which I've still got the video of. I won six 'his and her' watches. More of which in a minute...

At high school I had a friend who was connected in racing and they took me to the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1987. We ended up having dinner with Mario Andretti, who had dominated the race. It was the coolest thing ever. I got to ask Mario one question, which was 'how do you get started in racing?' And he said 'go-karts'.

In the race programme there was an ad for the Jim Hall karting school, so I went and sold the watches I won on Wheel of Fortune at a pawn shop to do the kart school. I ended up doing very well there.

F1R: Were your parents supportive of what you doing?

ZB: They were OK with it, because I was always in trouble at school and was moved three times. We were comfortable, but not a family that could afford racing. They didn't love that it was motorsport, but liked the fact I was not getting into trouble and was passionate about something.

I started to get up and watch F1 races at 4.50am on a Sunday and became a bit of a Ayrton Senna fan. I was karting more and had a lot of success. I got a factory ride, which meant they [the team] paid for it, but I had to work at the kart shop in return.

Eventually, my Mum helped me get some TWA airline tickets, which I sold to do my first Formula Ford race at the Jim Russell school at Donington Park. I won and that's where I met my best friend and the man who now runs my sportscar team [United Autosports], Richard Dean (below, right with Brown). He was my driving instructor.

I knew in order to pursue my dream I had to do sponsorship and did a deal to race against Jos Verstappen in Opel Lotus in 1991. I used to work at the Jim Russell racing school and Richard said I could stay at his sister's house.

So, I was in Sheffield on an air mattress in the living room and we'd drive the hour and a half to Donington Park. Imagine washing cars at 6.30am on a freezing dark February morning for £75. It was torture, but it was how I first made a living in motorsport.

F1R: Although you wanted to get to Formula 1, did you find it a struggle to keep finding sponsorship in the junior categories?

ZB: I was never able to find enough money. And I was worried about crashing, not because I was afraid to crash, but because I couldn't afford it. I did Opel Lotus and had some podiums. Did F3, but it was going nowhere, so I went back to the US and tried to get into Indycar, and did a deal to race in Toyota Atlantic.

I moved to Indianapolis because my home in LA was knocked down in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. I lived about a mile and a half away from the epicentre.
 It was unbelievable.

People think earthquakes are like something out of a Universal Studios tour, but I remember it vividly. It was 4:29am and when it hit, I thought a bomb had gone off. It broke everything in the house. The tables collapsed, windows came in, very scary. Tracy - then my girlfriend, now my wife - and I then moved to Indy where I worked for a racing school, on a $14k salary and sales commission.

F1R: How did your business start?

ZB: Two things happened. I did a deal with TWA and Mansell Madgwick Motorsport in British Formula 3000. I realised I could sell more sponsorship if it was to more famous names than myself.

Secondly, the racing school I was working at went bankrupt. I went to all the customers and asked for deposits so I could go and buy all the spec racing cars from the bank. It was reborn as the 'Track Attack' racing school.

I started JMI and then got my first seven-figure deal in Indycar in 1998. I was getting momentum and after a 58-year ban I got alcoholic spirits back into NASCAR. That took a lot of politics to get over the line, and the guy I did it with was Mark Waller. He was working at Diageo North America then, and is now my managing director of sales and marketing at McLaren.

"I got to drive alongside the guys I grew up idolising, such as Eddie Cheever, Stefan Johansson, Martin Brundle and Johnny Herbert"Zak Brown

I had 60 employees and we were the largest, most successful motorsport agency in the world. I was doing ten deals a year, in both Indycar and NASCAR. Then I brought Hilton to McLaren, which was my first F1 deal. They are with the team to this day.

F1R: What were you doing at the time that other sponsorship agents weren't?

ZB: I think the secret was that I wasn't representing the racing teams. Corporations are approached by individual teams and they don't really understand the difference [between them] and what they should be paying. I would sit down with Johnnie Walker and give them the option of what a McLaren or Williams deal would look like. The other thing is that there is no rate card - everyone is up for a deal.

My clients weren't the teams, rather they were Johnnie Walker, UBS, Lenovo, Martini - and I was their advocate.
 I am a specialist in motor racing and I think that resonated well with the corporations that wanted to be involved in the sport. I was credible because I had raced and spent my life in racing.

F1R: But when your company was sold, you moved into the wider world of marketing - into cricket, rugby, athletics and football. How keen were you on those sports, or did you want to return to motor racing?

ZB: In 2008 I was approached to sell 70% of the company to Spire Capital and Credit Suisse. I'd never planned to, but financially that was a life-changing event. They still wanted me to run the company, but I was just a guy who did deals.
 I didn't have any schooling in business; they instilled business discipline in me.

While I liked the company and the people, what I didn't like was working in sports I had no passion for. My whole life had been racing. I was fortunate because I didn't need to work, but I'm a workaholic and want to work.

Finally, in 2013, Sebastian Coe's company Chime Communications bought us for £74million and I was put in as Group CEO of CSM - the Sports group - for four years, heading up 1,200 people.

During this time, I was still doing a bit of racing and in 2009 I established the United Autosports racing team with Richard Dean. That's because I had been around Formula 1 and wanted to race, but with a team that had the right environment. It needed to have the right hospitality for sponsors and I wanted it to look good.

We had a lot of fun racing at places like Daytona and Le Mans, and I got to drive alongside the guys I grew up idolising, such as Eddie Cheever, Stefan Johansson, Martin Brundle and Johnny Herbert. And in recent years Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris have driven for my team.

F1R: With a keenness to return to racing from a career perspective, you were heavily linked to two major F1 roles: 
F1 itself, to work with Donald Mckenzie at CVC and also Bernie Ecclestone. At the same time, you're being courted by the shareholders of McLaren. Why did you decide to join McLaren?

ZB: Joining Formula 1 was appealing and flattering but I never got to the point where it felt it was 100% right. I've always been my own man and I didn't feel I was enough in control
 of my own destiny.

"My contribution is getting the right people on board in the right place and helping them be successful. It's about empowering them" Zak Brown

I've always had huge respect for Ron [Dennis], but then he had his own problems brewing with the shareholders. Finally, Mansour Ojjeh and Sheikh Mohammed reached out and said to me, 'we want you to come to McLaren and help run this team and get us back to where we need to be.'

I thought that joining F1 would be more of what I've already been doing - sponsorship deals, etc. Whereas I wanted to get back into racing and be on the grid. Ultimately, I chose McLaren. Since then I have loved every day, even the very painful ones.

F1R: One thing that you needed to do was restructure the management team at McLaren and shake up the culture. How difficult has that been?

ZB: There's still a long journey, but I've been proud of everything we have gone through. I think so much of what I've learned as a racer I've brought back to the business. It's about getting the right people in the right place with the right focus, leadership and resources.

A friend of mine said a long time ago, that a company of 100 people is 90% you, 10% them. A company of over 500 people is 90% them and 10% you. A company of 1,000 people is 80% them, 10% you and 10% luck.

I'm not driving the car, working on it, designing it, so all the credit is due to the members of the team. My contribution is getting the right people on board in the right place and helping them be successful. It's about empowering them.

My job is to build the greatest team in Formula 1. The good news is a lot of it is there. It had just lost its focus. Andreas Seidl is running the F1 team and has James Key as technical director. Along with them I've changed the majority of my leadership teams. I have Laura Bowden as head of finance, Mark Waller from the NFL is head of sales and marketing.
 My head of HR came from Liverpool Football Club.

The biggest thing we needed to fix was our culture. We had the talent there, but we were lacking leadership. We needed to create a great work environment so our staff are motivated.

F1R: This year two McLarens started in the top six for the first time in five years. Fourth place in 2019 was McLaren's best result in the constructors' championship for seven years. What's next for the upward trajectory of the team?

ZB: In 2020 we need to keep doing what we've started. I think we have to recognise this is going to take some time. We have to keep our heads down and stay focused. We're going to have some bad days at the office, some bad pitstops and we're not going to get there overnight.

Before the turnaround the recent times have been painful for us, our fans and our sponsors. I guess the saying is, 'what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger'. That was an all-time low for everyone in the team.

We're on our way up and it's made us stronger. It's made us look in the mirror. You have issues in life, in business, in racing. If you're honest with yourself and tackle them you're usually stronger in the long run.

I was looking at some stats the other day and Red Bull took a bit of time between their arrival [2005] and when they started winning [2009]. We're on the journey but we still have a way to go until we get back to how I grew up remembering McLaren - which is dominating Formula 1.

But I'm confident we have the right people - Andreas has been an outstanding addition to the team - with the right commitment to get back there in the future.

F1R: We know that away from F1 you enjoy your classic car collection, sportscar racing and even golf. Is there a sport 
that you wouldn't compete in if you didn't think you had a chance of winning?

ZB: You're right, I don't play sport for fun. [1979 F1 champion] Jody Scheckter is the best ping-pong player I know - Olympic level - and we can have up to two hours battling each other and he's very good.

"It comes back to my love of collecting Hot Wheels. But I'm just fortunate now I've got the bigger version" Zak Brown

Yes, I won't do anything unless I think I can be competitive. On the golf course, I play a couple of times a month and the best opponent is [McLaren driver] Carlos Sainz - he is damn good. But I like playing better golfers because actually you are playing yourself. And with the whole handicap scoring you can play anyone.

I find golf more of a challenge - just trying to beat my best score, not necessarily trying to beat who I'm playing. But golf is also such a frustrating sport because you can play like a PGA player one hole and like an amateur the next.

I still love sportscar racing and I keep my racing team separate from F1 - and it will remain that way. That's because I don't want two jobs, I want one job and then something 
else that I do at weekends that is enjoyable. I enjoy driving historics and have a nice road and racing car collection.

It comes back to my love of collecting Hot Wheels. But I'm just fortunate now I've got the bigger version. It's emotional for me.

Being involved in this sport is what I grew up wanting and I love it. It keeps me young.

Zak Brown CV
Age 47
Born Los Angeles, USA

2018 Chief executive officer, McLaren Racing
2016 Group Chief Executive Officer at Chime Sports Marketing
2014 Non-executive board member at Cosworth
2012 Races in British GT, one win
2010 Races in FIA GT3 and British GT
2009 Chairman of his own racing team, United Autosports
1999 Races in the American Le Mans Series
1997 Races in GT2 and tests in Indycar
1995 Founds Just Marketing International
1994 Eighth in National Class, British F3
1993 Fourth in Formula Opel Lotus Benelux
1992 Races in Toyota Atlantic in the USA
1991 Races in Formula Vauxhall in the UK
1990 Races in Formula Ford in the UK