Zak Brown Keeps Spirits High Despite McLaren Narrowly Missing Out on Podium in America

Have you ever fancied seeing a Team Principal racing on the tracks? If you have, you are in luck today. We aren’t speaking about the old videos of former racing drivers turned Team Principals. Current McLaren CEO Zak Brown, aged 51, has taken to a racetrack in California. Unfortunately for him and his team, he narrowly missed out on securing a podium. But his leadership instincts kicked in just in time to save the team’s spirits from dampening.

For the unversed, Brown has had an eventful karting and racing career. Though he never ascended to the pinnacle of motorsport, his racing skills are commendable. This weekend, keeping F1 duties aside, he proved the quote – ‘Once a racer, always a racer’. The American businessman took to the Laguna Seca racetrack in Monterey, California, and rode his iconic McLaren M8D – the car driven by legendary founder, Bruce McLaren, driving which, he also tragically lost his life.

As a tribute to their founder, McLaren, along with United Autosport, rebuilt the M8D, and Brown had the privilege of racing the car at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. As his F1 drivers do throughout the year, Brown too lit the track ablaze and got an impressive P5 in Qualifying. However, he couldn’t considerably improve in the race, finishing one position short of the podium, in P4. But he was still quite happy and directed the team to view it the same way.

Brown wrote in his Twitter post: “Mega result at Monterey, thank you @unitedautosportteam – P4 for the McLaren M8D in our debut race since rebuilding this epic car. Can’t wait to race it again, you guys are awesome 👊”

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Brown must have been quite thrilled to relive his racing days. And to dive deeper into getting the unmatched adrenaline and rush – he drove not just his McLaren but also a championship-winning Williams.

Zak Brown drives the iconic World Championship-Winning 1980 Williams Fw07B

The slow Williams car that you see putting laps in Formula 1 today doesn’t do justice to their days of glory. Much like McLaren, they too built magnificent cars in the past. The first of their 9 championship-winners was the FW07B that Alan Jones drove in 1980. That exact car is what Brown drove in Monterey.

The car might have won the 1980 championship, but Brown could only manage a P14 in qualifying. And unlike he did in the McLaren M8D, he couldn’t improve on his position and finished P14 in the race as well. But these are instances that are enriching and the experience counts more than the result.

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But a P4 in a McLaren – not bad for a retired racer turned Team Principal, eh?