Zak Brown is almost certain to deliver McLaren’s second consecutive constructors’ championship this year. It will be the first time they’ve retained the trophy since the 1990 and 1991 seasons.

McLaren enter the summer break nearly 300 points clear of second-place Ferrari. They’re on course for one of the earliest triumphs in the sport’s history.

It’s worth remembering the state the team were in when Brown became CEO in 2018. They had just finished ninth in the standings, scoring just 30 points.

After their painful reunion with Honda, Brown slowly started to build them back up. They were back on the podium in 2019 before ending their victory drought in 2021, and their resurgence accelerated midway through 2023.

Stoffel Vandoorne felt he couldn’t succeed under Zak Brown at McLaren

McLaren had signed Stoffel Vandoorne alongside Fernando Alonso before Brown arrived at the time. Vandoorne was perhaps the most exciting talent in motorsport, having won the 2015 GP2 title in supremely dominant fashion.

In his first year, he contributed an encouraging 43% of the team’s points, finishing just one spot behind Alonso, one of the highest-rated drivers on the grid, in the championship. He was also pleased with how he started 2018.

But speaking to Motor Sport Magazine, he recalled that his relationship with Brown ‘went south’. He got the sense that the American didn’t truly want him at the team.

This, he says, affected his results. He only scored points once between rounds five and 21, with his points share plummeting to 19%.

Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images
“I started 2018 well, too,” he said. “I had three points finishes in the first four grands prix – more or less matching Fernando in both qualifying and races – but the car was still tricky. We’d moved on from the works Honda deal that hadn’t been successful and we were now using customer Renault engines.

“Also, McLaren was in a state of upheaval. Martin Whitmarsh, Jost Capito and Eric Boullier all left, and Ron Dennis, too, then Zak Brown arrived.

“Zak and I got on well at first, then that changed. Things started to go south. I began to lose confidence in my surroundings.

“I felt Zak didn’t want me, and I think that was true. It simply wasn’t an environment that you could perform in.”

How is Stoffel Vandoorne’s relationship with Zak Brown now?

With Alonso retiring and Vandoorne predictably axed, McLaren fielded an all-new line-up of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz in 2019. Brown had put his imprint on the team in that respect.

Vandoorne remained part of their set-up until the end of 2023, and is now affiliated with Aston Martin. His achievements since include a Formula E championship and a runner-up finish in the LMP2 class of the WEC.

While Vandoorne’s F1 career proved to be a disappointment, certainly relative to the hype, Vandoorne says he has a good relationship with McLaren and has no hard feelings towards Brown.

“The shake-up at McLaren had to happen,” he reflected. “They had to realise the bad shape they’d got into. Suddenly I wasn’t in the position that I’d been used to being in for so many years, confident and winning.

“Now, instead, I was having to deal with difficult politics, and my results began to suffer. I felt lost and, I’ll admit it, I became unhappy.

“With the experience I have now, I guess I might have been able to handle it differently, but they needed a big makeover.

“In the end it worked. Just look at them now. And I’m glad to see it. I have no problem with anyone at McLaren. They backed me, they supported me, and without that I’d never have got where I’ve got.

“If I bump into Zak in the F1 paddock, we always say hi. It’s all good. I guess my McLaren F1 career is just a classic case of: right place, wrong time.”