Zak Brown: The Deal That Kept McLaren Alive and How I Rebuilt the Team (E379)
The High Performance Podcast
High Performance
4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown returns to High Performance to reveal the truth behind McLaren’s remarkable comeback, from financial crisis and public doubt to rebuilding one of Formula One’s most iconic teams.
He opens up to Jake and Damian about stepping into chaos, restoring belief through culture and communication, and the power of difficult conversations in transforming leadership. Zak also reflects on his unconventional journey from a rebellious kid in California to leading a global motorsport powerhouse, and why loyalty, trust, and humility remain at the heart of his success.
This is an unfiltered conversation about resilience, reinvention, and what it really takes to lead under pressure, proof that true high performance starts with people, not power.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 20203, we have the worst car on the grid. |
| 0:04.9 | A few leadership changes. |
| 0:06.6 | Now we win two Constructors Championships back to back. |
| 0:09.8 | Singapore, we clinched the Constructors Championship. |
| 0:12.2 | Get the team up on the podium. |
| 0:13.6 | First thing when we got up there, Orlando and I went, |
| 0:15.6 | Man, Oscar's not up here. |
| 0:16.6 | It's going to look terrible. |
| 0:18.1 | The only way he beats us is if we beat ourselves. We're prepared to take |
| 0:22.2 | that risk. I would be very surprised if this was just four boring races to the end. |
| 0:29.5 | That is the voice of Zach Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing, the man who walked into a Formula One |
| 0:35.0 | team that was failing. And a few years later, they are back-to-back constructors champions. |
| 0:41.8 | Zach walked into the famous doors of the McLaren Technology Centre |
| 0:44.9 | and found grumpy sponsors, grumpy fans and grumpy employees. |
| 0:49.4 | This episode amassed the class in honest assessment and cultural change |
| 0:53.3 | about how you can fix the machine |
| 0:55.2 | by fixing the people and the toxic blame culture first. |
| 0:59.3 | You're about to get a blueprint for turning around a business from Zach, as he shares with |
| 1:04.4 | us that McLaren were losing 125 million pounds a season when he arrived. |
| 1:10.0 | The mine games in Formula one from tire water to |
| 1:12.9 | CVs landing on his desk from other teams why that would rather be the hunter than the hunted |
| 1:17.9 | and of course we're in the midst of the most titanic championship battle with his two drivers |
... |
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