Pressure now falls on Zak Brown to turn McLaren F1 around

Zak Brown on grid in Detroit. Whereas winning in F1 requires hundreds of millions of dollars, winning in IndyCar, more a spec series, requires driver talent and about $15 million per year. Winning in something will help McLaren's image

Lucille Dust/AR1.com

In an interview with the official Formula 1 website Zak Brown has revealed that McLaren has clearly defined the leadership roles and he is the Woking outfit’s motorsport boss.

Asked to explain the reshuffle at Woking, Brown said, “It’s not radically different, it’s just clarified. Jonathan [Neale] and I were kind of co-CEOs, for a lack of better term, and now with the simplification we’ve got a racing business, a motor business and a technology business. The McLaren Technology Group no longer exists, where Jonathan and I were co-heads of racing and applied technologies.

“When it was us kind of sharing roles, I think it was not very clear for the team. You know, who does the buck stop with? So now, where racing is concerned, I’m the CEO – so now, that buck stops with me!

“The applied technologies was never my thing anyways, and Jonathan’s really good in that space, he’s an awesome Chief Operating Officer. So now what you have is Mike Flewitt, CEO of automotive, me CEO of racing, a CEO to be decided of applied technologies because our other one’s gone, and Jonathan is group COO, and the four of us are all peers."

“We all report in to the executive committee, Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa and Mansour Ojjeh. None of that’s actually changed. What’s changed is racing. So now, like the others, I answer to the executive committee, rather than to Jonathan."

“Simon Roberts is automatically responsible for everything that happens to the factory, and Eric Boullier, Racing Director and Simon are the two top guys in racing ultimately responsible for the competitiveness."

“So there is me, Eric, Simon, John Albert, marketing, plus the three partnership development guys, the finance guys and HR, that’s what my structure looks like. So the buck stops with me on the professional racing side, and the customer GT side of the racing program sits within the automotive group."

"I think there’s a lot of jealousy in this sport. I recognize, especially now in this role, that I’m not going to please everyone all the time and the court of public opinion is always just on the favor of us.

“I know I’m going to have 10%, 15%, 20% – pick a number – of people that are not Zak fans, but I think I’ve just got to do what I think’s right for McLaren and let the chips fall.

“I know we’re under pressure, I know I’m under pressure. Probably, if there’s a frustrating thing – and you know because you know racing – it’s that people don’t understand just how long these things take."

Brown has now firmly put the pressure on himself to deliver, “When I was brought in, I was kind of responsible for the non-technical side, business affairs and sponsorship, commercial stuff and media, but not for how fast the car goes. Now I am."