Zak Brown, the head of McLaren, has pledged that the team’s missteps during the 2025 Formula 1 season will ultimately serve to bolster its performance in subsequent years.
The UK-based racing team exerted significant control over extensive portions of the previous year, securing its second successive constructors’ championship at the Singapore Grand Prix in September as its competitors struggled.
However, McLaren faced a considerably more challenging path to clinch its inaugural drivers’ championship since 2008, partly due to its deliberate choice to allow Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to pursue their individual championship aspirations right up to the conclusion.
The team additionally committed a number of blunders which allowed Max Verstappen of Red Bull to re-enter the battle for the championship; nevertheless, Norris’s podium finish at the Abu Dhabi season closer proved sufficient to overcome the quadruple world champion by a narrow margin of two points.
These errors encompassed a dual disqualification for excessive plank wear in Las Vegas, alongside a tactical miscalculation at the subsequent Qatar race where the team opted against bringing its drivers in for fresh tires during an early safety car period.
Regarding Norris, he also experienced a technical retirement at Zandvoort and endured multiple sluggish pitstops, with the most notable instance leading to a contentious swap of positions with Piastri during the Monza event.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images
Nevertheless, in a public communication addressed to McLaren’s supporters, Brown articulated his belief that the team’s shortcomings would only serve to enhance its resilience moving ahead.
“We encountered difficult periods throughout the journey, and we certainly committed some errors that benefited our rivals – points crucial to recognize – yet these issues were addressed promptly and yielded significant insights that improved us as a collective,” he commented.
“As competitors, we’ve participated in this discipline long enough to grasp that unforeseen incidents occur, and they are inherent to the sport – the crucial aspect is our response in such circumstances to propel us onward. When errors arise, we accept accountability. We confront challenging scenarios head-on, transparently, and productively, ensuring our progression is marked by greater strength and unity.”
He continued, “The insights gained last year – and they were numerous – contribute to our continuous development as an organization and will unquestionably enhance our readiness. We are a comparatively new team, yet we absorb knowledge rapidly and recover with enthusiasm and determination. Trophies are earned by the manner in which teams react when facing adversity, and I am pleased with our management of those particularly tough instances.”
McLaren, along with its rival teams, will effectively begin anew with the completely revised technical regulations for 2026, rendering its commanding performance at the close of the ground-effect period inconsequential.
However, despite Brown’s acknowledgment that “it’s utterly impossible to foretell the competitive landscape at this juncture,” he is confident that Piastri will perform exceptionally well from the outset, leveraging the valuable experience gained competing at the front in 2025.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Zak Brown, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Oscar merits tremendous recognition. He delivered an astonishing season. It’s simple to overlook that he has participated in merely three Formula 1 seasons thus far – he pilots with a level of expertise and talent that defies his age and comportment demonstrating supreme professionalism and deference,” Brown further stated.
He concluded, “We recognized we possessed a burgeoning talent from the instant he joined us, and it has been gratifying to witness his rapid emergence as a contender for the championship. I am entirely confident that his prominence will only grow in the forthcoming years.”
