Zak Brown: Rebuilding McLaren, Leading Formula 1 and the Power of Winning Culture
In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen
Norges Bank Investment Management
4.8 • 186 Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What's behind McLaren Racing's remarkable rise to the top? Nicolai Tangen speaks with Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, about the incredible turnaround of one of F1's most historic teams. They explore how culture and transparency drive performance, why people matter more than equipment, and Zak's approach to building cohesion across 1,400 team members. Zak shares candid insights on driver dynamics, fan engagement, and the fine line between passion and emotion in decision-making. With an outstanding season, McLaren currently dominates the F1 standings. Tune in for a conversation on leadership and excellence!
In Good Company is hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. New full episodes every Wednesday, and don't miss our Highlight episodes every Friday.
The production team for this episode includes Isabelle Karlsson and PLAN-B's Niklas Figenschau Johansen, Sebastian Langvik-Hansen and Pål Huuse. Background research was conducted by Tobias Hyldmo.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everybody and welcome to In Good Company. |
| 0:03.0 | I'm Nicola Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Wealth Fund. |
| 0:06.0 | And today I'm speaking with Zach Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing, |
| 0:10.0 | one of the most remarkable turnarounds Formula One has ever seen. |
| 0:13.0 | Well, I would argue it's one of the most remarkable turnerones I've ever seen anywhere. |
| 0:18.0 | Zach has transformed McLaren from a struggling mid-packed team into a champion |
| 0:21.7 | leader and you are currently dominating the F1 season. Well done. So let's just dive straight in. |
| 0:27.7 | Why are you winning everything this year? |
| 0:40.4 | People. |
| 0:41.1 | If I had to give, of course, it's not a simple answer, |
| 0:44.1 | and it's never quite as simple as one thing. |
| 0:47.0 | But it's our people, and specifically our culture. |
| 0:50.8 | What we've been able to do here, you know, |
| 0:53.9 | if I take a step back, we're the second |
| 0:57.0 | most successful Formula One team of all time, second most historic next to Ferrari, which is good company. |
| 1:04.0 | And we certainly have won a lot of races and world championships over the years, but we really |
| 1:09.6 | started to struggle, you know, 10, 15 years ago and |
| 1:13.6 | lost our way for a variety of reasons, but probably the biggest impact being we lost our way |
| 1:20.7 | as a team, teamwork, and that culture. And so, of course, we've had great investment. We've got great drivers. |
| 1:29.6 | We have new wind tunnels, all the things that people are the tools that they need to be able to |
| 1:35.0 | get back to the front. But the way we've been able to unlock the performance of our people |
| 1:42.8 | through a great culture of transparency, |
... |
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