Zak Brown admits 'it’ll be damn tough' but vows to get McLaren back to the top

Track talk: Zak Brown
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Zak Brown’s first memories of Formula One were in 1988 when McLaren — courtesy of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna — won 15 of that season’s 16 grands prix.

On Monday he was appointed executive director of the McLaren Group, a move he says is like “having Scalextric as a child and suddenly getting to play with the big version”.

And although he joins amid turmoil — he replaces Ron Dennis following a boardroom coup and with McLaren sixth in the constructors’ championship — the 45-year-old American believes he can return the team to the top of the pile.

At 35, the clock may be ticking for Fernando Alonso but Brown thinks McLaren could finally give him a platform for a third world title.

“Fernando can definitely win the World Championship with this team,” Brown, who takes up his position next month, told Standard Sport. “I don’t think age is the issue a lot of people think it is. I definitely think Fernando could win the title if he gets the right car.”

But the size of the challenge is clear; McLaren have 75 points compared with 722 for front-runners Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton having scored as many points in the last three races as McLaren have in the 20 so far this term.

Sunday’s season finale in Abu Dhabi is likely to see his new employers off the pace once more but, with wholesale rule changes in 2017, Brown is hopeful of a reversal of fortunes.

“When you get big regulation changes like that, it’s usually the teams with the bigger resources that come out on top although we didn’t see that last time around with Brawn GP [in 2009] obviously,” he said. “But 100 per cent my aim is to get McLaren back on top.

“I think that will be damn tough but it’s definitely achievable with the resources we have. We’ve always been a World Championship team and it’s shown great progress since the start of the partnership with Honda.

“It won’t be an easy feat to get back there but it will be an incredibly emotional win when we do.”

Brown insists McLaren were his favourite team growing up — he even owns the car Mika Hakkinen drove in the 1991 championship, a purchase he only sealed by grounding down a reluctant Dennis to do business.

Now he fills the void left by Dennis, someone he still considers a friend despite the circumstances of his arrival at McLaren. For his part, Brown insists there is no animosity between the pair — the two of them talking yesterday as well as over the weekend, and it was Dennis who first proposed bringing Brown on board.

“From my standpoint, it’s business as usual with Ron,” he said. “Ron was ultimately responsible for bringing me into the fold and he’s still one of the major shareholders which are essentially the people I work for. The team Ron has built has been amazing and my job is to continue to grow that.”

Brown had been lined up to succeed Bernie Ecclestone as Formula One boss and talks took place with the sport’s potential new owner, Liberty Media.

“I want to stay away from getting into too much detail but I was lucky to have multiple conversations going on about my next move,” said Brown. “It’s flattering that I wasn’t short of opportunities. I feel like I’ve lucked out joining McLaren, a mega team, which has the resources to win the world title.”

Could it yet, however, prove a stepping stone to the top job as the next Ecclestone? “I’m so laser-focused on McLaren right now that I’m definitely not thinking about that right now,” he added. “This is about getting back to world champions. That’s the focus.”

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