Zak Brown told Will Buxton on the Up To Speed podcast that turning McLaren into a constructors’ champion required more than engineering upgrades – it demanded a fundamental cultural shift.
When Brown assumed leadership of the Woking team, the outfit was struggling on the grid and had fallen into a toxic blame culture that stifled accountability and morale. The former under‑performer’s internal atmosphere, he said, was as much a barrier to progress as any technical deficit.
Brown said his first priority was to dismantle that blame mindset, replacing it with a collaborative environment where failures are analysed openly and successes shared. He believes that clearing the cultural fog will allow the team’s engineering talent to translate into race‑winning performance, and his comments suggest the overhaul is already underway and will shape McLaren’s approach for the coming seasons.
