Zak Brown opens up on the FIA stewarding chatter along with rules of engagement, McLaren’s current position and more.
The F1 Austrian GP blew open debate around stewarding and penalties with McLaren chief Brown leading the charge. The American brought back discussions around having permanent stewards as opposed to volunteered position.
He noted that the FIA has recoginised that fact as well and expects changes going forward. The enforcement of rules was brought up too in terms of how the penalties are applied and how much the consequence of an incident is looked at while taking decisions.
He showcased hypocrisy of F1 team bosses by citing example of former Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer, who opposed penalty points changes at the time of Lando Norris but wanted it to be looked upon when Pierre Gasly was facing the same.
In fact, Brown thinks the decision making should solely be with Formula 1 and the FIA as opposed to teams getting majority in voting system. On the driving side, the American clarifies that it is not a Max Verstappen issue that he has with standards.
It is a boarder question which involves all the drivers. But he keeps his word about questioning the Red Bull style of leadership. Looking at the the championship, Brown doesn’t think the internal turmoil is affecting the reigning champions.
He feels it will have an effect down the line but at the moment it is more law of diminishing returns playing about. It is welcome change for McLaren, who are in a good position which is exciting for everybody involved and one that they have earned it.
He certainly credits Andrea Stella for playing a key role in McLaren’s revival. He feels the team is ready to go toe-to-toe against Red Bull but don’t think they will be nasty in doing so. Even with Norris, Brown knows he will get there with experience.
FIA dialogue about track limits –
Brown: “Yes, and the conversations are very healthy. I think the FIA recognise part-time, underfunded stewarding is not how you govern a full-time, very intense, very technical, very big racing series. So the conversations have been very healthy. I don’t think we’re setting, we’re not set up for success with the current system, so I think it’s important. It’s not a reflection on the individuals that are stewarding, but to just show up and do this part time as a favor isn’t what we need. And I think there’ll be changes to address it, to raise the professionalism and the investment in stewarding, which I think everybody universally welcomes.”
Rules and rules enforcement –
Brown: “I think it’s both. An example of that, the rule that I think needs addressing in amongst a variety of things. Had Lando won the race in Ausria, got the five-second penalty and lost, I think people would have gone bonkers over that result. Because track limits, for me, is enhancing your lap time, getting an unfair advantage, in qualifying, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. To chuck it up the inside, get it a little bit wrong, run wide, go over curves, give the position back, have a slower sector. You’ve just been penalized. To then get a five-second penalty on the back of that, that doesn’t feel right. So I do think there needs to be some adjustments to what the regulations are, because I think that, as an example, should not be deemed a track limit. Otherwise you’re going to discourage drivers from taking any risk in passing. And he gave the position back, it was a slower sector, runs over a curve, potentially could damage a car, and you get a penalty. So I think that needs to be addressed as an example.
“I think you’ve got to be consistent with your application of the penalties regardless of the outcome. Because if you take the incident in Austria, the ten-second penalty, that could have been nothing more than just some tyre marks on each other’s side pods. And a ten-second penalty happened to be, it cost two guys the race, one any points. But you can’t dial up the penalty because that happens. You’ve got to penalize whatever the incident is. It does make you wonder, how did we go racing without any of this stuff for as long as we did and not have any of these controversies? I think one of the challenges, and the teams collectively are pretty guilty of creating a lot of these issues themselves by over-complicating what we want in race cars, what we want on regulations, because something will happen and then we’ll all spend an inordinate amount of time getting into so much detail and we don’t necessarily think about the unintended consequences.
“So that comes back to my view, which I think I’ve been consistent on. I’d like to see the teams have less authority, as much of a voice, but through voting for all these different things that we vote on. And I’d like to see us get rid of majority votes and get to a simple 50% something gets through, because we’re all conflicted in some way at some point. And the threshold for teams to be able to rally together to block something that is not in there, whether it’s an A-B team issue, whether it’s a manufacturer issue, which we could be part of that. So I think we do need to give more of the power back to Formula 1 and the FIA to do what they think is right for the sport. I think we’re our own worst problem at times.”
Teams not aligned –
Brown: “Not everyone’s on the same page, because they want to have the ability to influence the outcome. And it can be pretty embarrassing at times in the team principal meetings. An example being when Lando was up on penalty points two years ago. And we made our case that actually the majority of his penalty points weren’t dangerous. And Otmar was totally against it, because obviously everyone wanted to get Lando bent. Fast forward 12 months, Gasly’s up against it. Otmar brings forward the same exact case that we brought forward. And we were like, dude, you voted against that. I did? I mean, he didn’t even know where he voted. And that’s not healthy, because it shows that one year it might work for you. The following year it might not work for you.
“And therefore, to take this kind of what’s good for me today vote out of the system, I think you’ve just got to stand back and let the FIA and Formula One regulate for the fairness of the sport. Which means you’re going to win some, lose some. And there could be some times that we lose in the short term, because we would have liked to have won something. But I believe McLaren won a race in a fair and sporting and equitable way. Which means sometimes it might go for you, sometimes it might go against you. But over the long haul, if we’re all in a sport that is about total fairness and things are equal for everyone, I think that’s just a better sport and we all win.”
Driver questioning, Max issue or not –
Brown: “I think the drivers know best. And I think, and I know they had a long meeting in Silverstone, I think the drivers need to have greater input to what they think the driving standard rules should be. At the end of the day, they’re the ones driving. So if they can all get aligned and agree on what that is, then that seems like a great basis in which to start from. And then the stewards need to consistently govern against whatever they all agree to. I was not in the steward meeting. I think reading between the lines of what was said, and I want to respect the confidentiality of the meeting, I would presume if they had to do it all over again, they may have done things differently. I want to be respectful to that, but without them saying it, they effectively went, ‘hmm’.
“And also there was a reference to the Leclerc incident with Lando, and then you look at Fernando’s two penalty points. I think one gets a reprimand, damages a car in practice. Another’s a racing incident, gets the penalty and two penalty points. There’s some inconsistencies there from the driver’s point of view. I think the rules and the code of conduct should be the same for all racing drivers. And I think Toto said, the Alpine guys go at it quite a bit. So I don’t think this is by any means, you know, a Max issue. Right with, Alonso had his and Leclerc and Lando. So I don’t think this is a Max issue. I think this is a what are the rules and what’s the enforcement of the rules? Because I think we’ve all seen lots of examples with different drivers in the last few years.”
Red Bull leadership –
Brown: “At the end of the race. And I don’t know who it was on the radio. I think it was Christian, but I don’t know. I’d have to listen to it again. But they had told Max he had done nothing wrong. And that Lando was, I don’t remember exactly what he said, way out of order. I didn’t think Lando did anything wrong. I don’t think anybody thought Lando did anything wrong. And I think things are going to happen on track. But I think we need to all be honest with each other and our drivers and go. But to kind of lay the blame in front of everyone at Lando when I think it was clear it wasn’t Lando’s fault, was just inappropriate. I think it’s okay. We all make mistakes in life. Own your mistakes. So I just didn’t think that was appropriate. I don’t know how they run their teams. I wouldn’t want to speculate on what I think they may or may not do. And then the FIA have private conversations with each team. We have a very healthy relationship with Nicholas Tombazis. A great relationship. So I don’t know how they’ll handle it. What they thought was appropriate, not appropriate.”
McLaren in new position of fighting for wins –
Brown: “It’s exciting for starters. It’s very enjoyable. It’s a good stress. You definitely kind of like, don’t get this wrong because it’s a race win. And when it’s a fourth or a fifth or an eighth, it’s, but I think it’s enjoyable. I think the team’s definitely up for it. When I’m on pit wall, the tone of the team led by Andrea and Randy, you wouldn’t know if we’re racing for the win or we’re in 10. And I think that’s what you want to see. You know, there’s nothing on pit wall, ‘Oh my God, we’re in the lead’. It’s like business as usual. So the team’s definitely up for it. And there’s a lot of race wins and championships inside McLaren. So why it’s a little bit newer to me, Andrea Stella’s been there, done that with one of the best drivers and best teams in the world, as has a lot of people inside McLaren. So we’re enjoying it. We’re hungry for it. And we’re very critical of ourselves. If we made a mistake, we talk about it offline, but we definitely do a very detailed, as I suspect everyone does, post-race analysis. And during race, if it’s something that we think we need to adjust for the next stop or the next call. But there’s a lot of confidence in the team.”
Can the challenge be laid down, how in this position –
Brown: “Yeah, so I think it’s going to be dependent upon Perez at the end of the day, because you’ve just got to assume Max is going to be first, second, or third at every race, the balance of the year. Probably more firsts than thirds. Sergio underperforming is what’s opening the window for us. I think if we have the same points gain we’ve had the last six races, the balance of the year, we’d get the job done. So we’re fully aware of it. But the way Andrea motivates the team, it’s all about this weekend, next session, and the next weekend next. So we know we can do it, but that’s not what’s driving our motivation. What’s driving our motivation? Trying to get better every session, every week, and the outcome will take care of itself. I would be…which I am sure they [Red Bull] would be very concerned about the lack of performance (from Sergio). But I like Sergio, so I wouldn’t want to comment further on that [if they do mid-season change].
“I think it’s just my opinion as opposed to fact [regarding Red Bull dropping off]. I think they got to kind of terminal velocity, if you’d like, quicker than the rest of us. And there does come a point of diminishing returns as far as just how much you can continue to develop a car. I think their credit to them got there first, and now we’re all just caught up or almost caught up. I don’t think so [internal turmoil is reason for current scene]. I think the turmoil will have more of a mid to longer term impact. You know, Adrian Newey, this car was done last year. What they’re racing now was done when everything was fine. I think it’s more of ’26 when you got a new engine coming, what’s going on with the driver front. I think that’s where you potentially are going to see the lack of stability that appears to be there maybe come through a little bit. Winning holds things together, and as that becomes more of a challenge for them, I think that’s where you might see some more fractures in various relationships inside that camp.”
McLaren getting attention, what changed –
Brown: “Yeah, everywhere. From CVs coming in the door to sponsorship, we’re doing awesome. Drivers’ happiness, team morale, shareholder excitement, fans, yeah, definitely everywhere. But we need to keep our feet on the ground, because we know how quickly… I think I like where we’ve come from, because we’ve kind of earned it the hard way, and I think it’s made us more resilient, and very proud of what we’ve done, and I actually think it’s good that we went through the bad times, because we know what that feels like, so we’re going to work really hard to make sure we don’t get back there, so we’re not taking anything for granted. The one word answer [for our revival] would be Andrea Stella.
“Obviously it’s a team effort, but he’s the one who’s led and driven the change. Andrea is the best racer I’ve ever been around. It’s now my eighth season, but I’ve been around racing forever. Andrea has done an amazing job of focusing the team, driving leadership. Obviously he’s not designing the car, so I wouldn’t want to not give credit to the other 1,000 people around him. But his leadership, that’s been the single biggest change that’s taken us from where we were at the start of 2023 to where we are now. Pete Padromo, Rob Marshall, Neil Howley, all these guys are doing an outstanding job, but under Andrea’ leadership.”
Ready for a toe-to-toe battle, Norris’ mind –
Brown: “Yeah, we’re prepared to go toe-to-toe. Nasty is not what McLaren goes racing, but I think you can go toe-to-toe, but you don’t have to be nasty about it. They seem to, at times, have a win-at-all-costs mentality. That’s not how we go racing, but we think you can go toe-to-toe and take the fight to them our own way. I think to win the Formula One World Championship, everyone needs to be at 100%. I think Lando’s learning every time out there. He’s got the benefit of one win. Max and Lewis and Schumacher, I think when you’ve won as much as they’ve won, that gives you a lot of experience. So, I think Lando’s still getting that experience of winning Grand Prix’s, which I think is great, because the only way to get it is to get stuck in there. I think he’s just going to continue to improve as a driver. I think he’s perfectly capable of winning the World Championship now. But it doesn’t he still can’t get better. I think Max is a better driver today that he was in year 1 of his championship and year 2 of his championship. So, I think these drivers continue to refine their game.”
Epic season –
Brown: “Even having a conversation about it [that we can challenge after first few races]? Yeah. I think all of us are. I think we all went to Bahrain and went, right, that’s that championship. And I think it’s going to be an epic. I mean, Mercedes seems to be very on the pace now. Ferrari there about won too many races ago. Charles won. So you kind of feel like you’ve got four different teams that are all going to win races the second half of the year. So pretty awesome. Unfortunately, the season didn’t start now. I think it’s awesome. From the last few races, really outside of the first three or four races where we all thought it was going to be more of the same, I think Formula 1’s been epic. I mean, you throw the weather into this, would you be shocked if any of the top eight drivers won on Sunday? I don’t think you’d be shocked. One might be more surprising than another, but if we walked out of here with Oscar won, Lando won, Max won, Sergio won, Charles won, Carlos won, Lewis won, and George won, none of those would be, how the hell did that happen? So that’s a pretty cool place for the sport to be.”
Here’s Zak Brown going after Red Bull leadership
Here’s McLaren testing for Pirelli
Here’s McLaren trio on British GP
Here’s Christian Horner on McLaren’s strategy
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact
