Zak Brown opens up on Adrian Newey chat in ‘great ability’ reveal

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown opened up on the advice he has received from Aston Martin-bound Adrian Newey when it comes to moving on quickly in Formula 1.

McLaren in F1 2024 has thrust themselves into the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship battles, as they bid to end the Max Verstappen and Red Bull streak, with team and driver chasing a fourth and third consecutive title respectively.

Zak Brown takes advice from Adrian Newey

But as they navigate their way through this new environment, McLaren has at times been criticised for a reluctance to go all-in on backing Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship battle.

McLaren has since made that call to put all of their eggs in the Norris basket, but has that call come too late was the follow-up.

“It’s really easy to have a beer, a couch and a TV and run a Formula 1 team — hundreds of millions of people do it every weekend,” said Brown when quizzed on this scrutiny by The Sunday Times.

“There’s so much more than meets the eye, which drives decisions. Sometimes you still do get it wrong; we never sit there and say there’s nothing we couldn’t have done better this season. But it’s never as simple as some people like to make it.”

And when it comes to not getting caught up on decisions and scenarios which have been and gone, Brown has tapped into the mindset of F1 design guru Adrian Newey, who is preparing to join Aston Martin in March 2025 after his Red Bull departure.

“I was talking to Adrian Newey,” Brown revealed. “He has a great ability to say ‘Monday is a new day’.

“I can’t change the past… you learn from it, you apply it moving forward, but to dwell on it, what ‘coulda or shoulda’ is wasted energy. We left some points on the table there… we could’ve done things differently at Silverstone. But it’s not going to change anything. It’s gone.”

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Newey recently referenced this mindset he utilises during an appearance on the High Performance podcast, as he shared his opinion that Mercedes “psychologically” struggled to let go of the controversial Abu Dhabi F1 2021 title decider.

“I think it got to Mercedes and, instead of saying, okay, well, accepting it and moving on, it started to affect their psyche, which is an interesting one,” Newey claimed.

“That’s from the outside, and I might be completely wrong. Just they couldn’t let it go. Psychologically, they couldn’t let it go.

“And you have to… We all have a bad race, perhaps should have won and the bloody thing broke down on the last lap or whatever. And I always have a personal issue like that, actually, I will be horrible to be around in the airport and that Sunday evening, but come Monday morning, I’ve got to wake up and be back on it.

“I can’t go back into the factory all miserable and downbeat. Part of my position, I suppose, is to help, to try to hopefully motivate everybody.”

McLaren lead the F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship by 41 points over Red Bull with six rounds of the season to go.

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