How a passion for the past is driving McLaren's pursuit of F1 titles

They say that you never really own a classic car, even if the V5 form reads otherwise. Instead, you’re more of a custodian, someone who is tasked with preserving a small slice of history so that it may one day be enjoyed by the next generation. Thanks to his appreciation and enthusiasm for the past, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown – himself a collector of significant road and race cars – manages the papaya race teams under a similar mantra.

The American businessman considers himself “the number one McLaren fan”. He is, in essence, the kid who grew up to be given the keys to the sweet shop. As such, on his watch, more and more of the back catalogue of championship-winning machines are being restored, displayed and driven at the headline Goodwood and Monterey (Laguna Seca) events.

But Brown also knows when to take off those rose-tinted spectacles. That’s why he’s signed off major infrastructure upgrade projects and key personnel changes in order to return McLaren to Formula 1 greatness. In short, Brown wants future custodians at Woking to have to also preserve a string of victorious cars that were conceived during his tenure.

Sitting at his desk – which is adorned with a model of Niki Lauda’s MP4/2 from 1984 – on the top floor of the McLaren F1 motorhome, Brown says: “This was my favourite team growing up. It means everything to me. Ayrton Senna is the one that turned it into my favourite team.

“The first grand prix I ever went to was at Long Beach in 1981. I remember the impact it had on me like it was yesterday. Williams finished 1-2 and Alan Jones won. I still have the race programme. I just remember the impression of meeting Eddie [Cheever, then at Tyrrell] for two seconds, seeing the cars close up. That’s what our sport is about. So, a lot of what I do comes back to me and what would I have liked to have seen and the impression it left on me.”

That sentiment is why Brown encourages his drivers to stop for every photo and autograph they practically can. He wants to create memories, entice fans and share McLaren history. This year’s 60th anniversary celebrations have provided the perfect opportunity to indulge that, with the organisation fielding its biggest Festival of Speed line-up in the event’s 30-year history courtesy of a 14-strong ensemble. Brown also pushed to decorate the current F1 car, christened the MCL60 in deference to the big birthday, with special ‘Triple Crown’ and chrome homage liveries earlier this season.

McLaren marked its heritage with a special Triple Crown livery at Monaco

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

While it doesn’t fall under the F1 budget cap, recommissioning and maintaining the likes of the MP4-14A title winner of 1999 and Lewis Hamilton’s MP4-23A-05 from 2008 to ensure that they’re ready for public demonstrations isn’t cheap. Especially for a team that was put through the financial wringer only three years ago and had to seek outside investment. So, why go to all the trouble?

PLUS: How restoring old F1 cars helps McLaren manage its modern cost cap and staff burnout

“For our fans, for our sponsors, for our employees, to celebrate our rich history while being very focused on new history,” explains Brown. “I think when you’ve got an iconic team and brand with such a rich history and you have a big moment, your 60th birthday, and we’ve got all these great assets, you’ve got to bring them out – the racing drivers, some of Bruce McLaren’s original mechanics – to celebrate.

“I think the fans love our history, our employees love our history, our sponsors love our history. And to put it on display and share it… we’re in the sport and entertainment business and we’ve got all this great sport that’s very entertaining. We’ve got to bring it to life. I think that’s the business that we’re in and it’s fun. I feel like sharing McLaren history and the present. It is part of my role to lead that engagement.”

"I like to walk the Boulevard and move the toy cars around. We are out of celebratory space so something’s going to have to get deprioritised, but it’s such a nice story to tell" Zak Brown

As Brown mentions, those ‘assets’ don’t just cover cars. Two-time F1 world champions are seemingly on speed dial. Emerson Fittipaldi belted into his 1974 M23-05 at Goodwood last month, while Mika Hakkinen was enlisted a few years ago to lap Laguna Seca aboard the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning F1 GTR. At the launch of the MCL60, ex-grand prix driver Howden Ganley and former mechanic Ray Rowe were part of the unveiling. They were McLaren employees number three and eight.

Brown has ensured that they have remained part of the fold, but he can’t take all the credit, for it was former McLaren CEO Ron Dennis who green-lit the statement Norman Foster-designed McLaren Technology Centre headquarters – another asset the company is now commercialising by opening the doors to public tours. It was also Dennis’s idea for the team to keep, and buy back where necessary, all of its notable race cars. While the base is pristine and free of anything that could constitute clutter, McLaren is in fact a hoarder.

Brown adds: “I love coming into the office every day. I like to walk the Boulevard and move the toy cars around. We are out of celebratory space so something’s going to have to get deprioritised, but it’s such a nice story to tell.”

Thanks to that air of sentimentality, when you arrive through the main glass doors of the MTC, you are greeted first by the 1929 Austin 7 that eponymous founder Bruce McLaren drove to his first race win at the age of 15. Then you walk down the main pathway, drooling over the 1970 Can-Am title-winning ex-Denny Hulme M8D monster and its eight polished velocity stack ‘trumpets’. That’s before clocking the Marlboro, Mercedes and Vodafone-era F1 machines.

Keeping its old cars running is an important priority for McLaren, with demo runs at Goodwood from 14 of its machines including Fittipaldi's M23

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

And while they may not tug on the heart strings quite so much, Brown intends for the contemporary F1, IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E racers to join that star-studded line-up. He has led the expansion into other categories, and he wants the whole workforce to be proud of it.

The trophies denoting every GP podium, win and championship line the glass cabinets a little further down the Boulevard at the MTC. Whereas some teams opt for replicas, McLaren has long written into driver contracts that the factory must keep the real thing.

Just beyond the well-populated shelves sit four towers. These hold 24,500 litres of water and will be used to cool the brand-new wind tunnel – an upgrade McLaren sincerely hopes will force it to buy even more storage for silverware. A new simulator is also poised for completion. And while the builders have been in, Brown and team principal Andrea Stella have kept busy with a full review and reorganisation of the F1 design department to stop a ground-effects rot.

A ban on oil-burning resulted in a less potent Ferrari engine for 2020 to help McLaren to third place in the constructors’ standings. Daniel Ricciardo then led a team 1-2 at the following season’s Italian GP aboard the MCL35, which is still required for test car purposes before it can sit proudly on display at the MTC. But the 2022 regulatory revolution derailed the recovery plan – McLaren slipped to fifth, Ricciardo lost his way and was ultimately paid to leave, and talisman Lando Norris bemoaned a run of chassis that handled poorly.

Brown explains the ringing out of the changes in response: “We just hit a speed bump and I felt it last year. These are things that I recognised during the second half of last year. I had some conversations internally about why we were losing momentum, were stagnant, which in Formula 1 meant we were going backwards. We knew we had to make changes.

“I brought Andrea in to run things in December. He recognised right away we’re not where we need to be. Then, what we’re seeing now is obviously the collective team’s work, but he’s the architect behind the restructure. It just goes to show what great leadership and a vision on how a race team should be structured can do.

“We’re all motivated. We don’t get down. We fight hard. If you look at how poor the start of the season was, that was hard. Meanwhile, under the surface, we knew we were seeing great development in the wind tunnel, so it was about publicly taking a battering at the start of the year while knowing underneath things were actually going really well. The team handled it well.”

Progress for McLaren has been stuttering since its Monza 1-2 in 2021, but Brown believes the team is now on the right track

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

It appears as though almost no one from up and down the pitlane has been beyond McLaren’s grasp during this restructure. Ferrari’s head of vehicle concept David Sanchez has joined, so too will veteran Red Bull chief engineering officer Rob Marshall.

Granted, Williams, Alpine and Sauber – thanks to its Audi takeover – are all plotting similar rebuild projects. But Brown is clear. His revival at McLaren is not about merely keeping pace to ensure the team isn’t left behind by these other upwardly mobile outfits. He is targeting the very biggest prizes.

“We have a different leadership and structure, then we have new people coming in, which should be another contribution to performance,” says Brown. “While we’ve got everything coming online now, like the wind tunnel, it really won’t be until 2025 that everything has started from a clean sheet of paper with the new structure and people in place.

"Not having our own wind tunnel, having a 20-year-old simulator, being behind in CFD technology. Those were big holes. There isn’t anything we’re staring at that is like, 'We need a new one'" Zak Brown

“But look at what we’re capable of with what we have [the mid-season upgrades for the MCL60 have yielded two GP podiums and one sprint race top-three finish]. I’m quite proud of everything the team has done. So, everything that we’re bringing in is additive, just more horsepower, which we should then see with another step up in 2025.

“There are not big gaps like we’ve had the last five years: not having our own wind tunnel, having a 20-year-old simulator, being behind in CFD technology. Those were big holes. There isn’t anything we’re staring at that is like, ‘We need a new one’. All that will be in place. What we need at this point is time for it all to come together: culturally, communications. Then it’ll just be about refining, learning, improving. But we’ll have everything in place to be a world championship team.”

In his personal life, Brown only bids on race cars that have won a major event or championship. Naturally, he wants every forthcoming McLaren F1 creation to satisfy those same criteria. After a wobble, he firmly believes the measures are now in place to facilitate this. So, as the team celebrates its diamond anniversary in 2023, it may well be sitting on the cusp of another golden age.

Now that the fundamental pieces are in place, will Brown's bold projections for the team's success be realised?

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images