Brown opens up on 'toxic' McLaren environment

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has spoken out on the “toxic” environment he encountered when he first joined McLaren.

Brown joined the British outfit in late 2016 when it was enduring difficult results in partnership with Honda, who returned to the sport as a power unit supplier the year before.

The McLaren-Honda reunion lasted just three seasons before the Woking-based squad switched to Renault engines - but still the issues remained.

Brown has since overseen McLaren's rise to championship success as the team emerged from 2024 with the constructors' trophy in hand.

Having endured a long road to get to that point, Brown recalled his early experience with the team when he arrived.

“[It was] a lot worse than I thought,” the 53-year-old told James Allen on F1.

“I came in knowing that things were not in great shape. You could see the brands on the car, you could see the results. But once I arrived, I realised it was really bad.

“I went about tackling the commercial side first because that's where I was most comfortable, and we needed a lot of resources.”

'Toxic' McLaren politics have been eliminated - Brown

McLaren has since undergone significant personnel changes with Andrea Stella now leading in a team principal role while long-time Red Bull employee Rob Marshall oversees its technical department.

With the team now in a position to compete at the front of the grid, Brown highlighted it has come a long way from having “toxic” experiences in the workplace.

“I knew that [commercial impact] would be the biggest contribution I could make in the short term [and] change the majority of the leadership team - but one at a time, once I got to know everyone.

“It took it a while to turn it around, it was pretty toxic on the shop floor in terms of the politics.

“At the time, I think we were all convinced the problem was the [Honda] power unit, and while that was certainly a big contributor, that was not exclusively the issue.

“That became very clear once we changed [to Renault] and the results got a little bit better, but we knew we had fundamental problems.

“It was quite a daunting task to tackle, but we got there in the end.”