Outside Line: Bravo McLaren! Zak Brown take a bow

It has been so long. 2008 was the last world title we won, way before Zak Brown was on our radar, the American responsible for returning our team to the pinnacle of motorsport.

I greatly admire Ron Dennis for what he created; he popped up on my radar when he ran a very effective title-winning Formula 3 and Formula 2 program backed by Philip Morris and their Marlboro brand. The big-spending tobacco giant wisely invested in him to lead McLaren from their doldrums in the wake of the Teddy Mayer era, whose best days had been James Hunt winning the title in 1976.

With Marlboro engineering the finances, Mayer was out as boss, and Dennis, with John Barnard (Adrian Newey of the time) on his payroll, went on to build one of the greatest teams of all time, iconic Marlboro cars, which I had the good fortune of photographing officially in the late eighties and early nineties. Our glory years.

Today, McLaren is a very, very different team from the one that Dennis built under the leadership of Brown whose handpicked team principal, Andrea Stella, matches the American's boisterousness with a calm articulateness that, to me, makes him one of the more believable guys in a paddock packed with unbelievable guys.

It was six years ago that Brown unleashed his five-year plan to bring McLaren back up to its winning ways. There were many sceptics (me among them), especially when McLaren started spreading its wings in just about every series imaginable. While they struggled (the Fernando Alonso years) miserably, Brown was out entering McLaren in just about every series, notably IndyCar.

It made little sense, spreading their wings so wide while the core of their marketing muscle—Formula 1—was in dire straits. But Brown persevered, and now that they are again big hitters in Formula 1, Constructors Champions for the first time since 1998, McLaren is again on top of that pile, and they're winning; they're World Champions against all expectations. No one would have said this ten races through this past season, but they did it.

On paper, McLaren 'won' the Constructors' title in 2007, but they were disqualified. Hence, 1998 was the last time they officially did the business. Lewis Hamilton was their last Driver World Champion, and notably, he was among the first to congratulate the team, as was a big-smiling Alonso. Remember it was he who torpedoed what could have been a very fruitful Honda partnership and spent far too many years gracing the back of grids in horrible McLarens.

It's amazing to think that half a dozen years since those dark days for the team, they again shine brightest of all, claiming their ninth Constructors' World Championship title in 2024 to add to the ones McLaren won in 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1998. F1 stats show that the Woking team is tied with Williams, also on nine Constructors titles. Of other current manufacturers, Mercedes has eight titles, Red Bull has six, and Ferrari tops with 16 world titles.

Brown can take credit for everything McLaren achieved this year and how they got here. He had the gumption to buy more time for the team to turn it around from near insolvency. When Alonso was finally ejected from Ferrari, the good thing he did for the team was urging Stella to leave Ferrari and follow him for his second Woking chapter. The Spaniard departed at the end of 2018, but the Italian remained.

Ahead of this incredible turnaround in form, from also-rans to winners in a couple of seasons, Brown took a very wise gamble on Lando Norris and then broke the bank to secure Oscar Piastri's services.

The American also had the balls to send Daniel Ricciardo packing one year before his contract was due to end. By all accounts, it cost the team big bucks. But Brown did what had to be done for the best of his team. In 23-year-old Piastri, he has a driver who will one day be a match for Verstappen. It's just a matter of more experience for the young Aussie.

In 25-year-old Norris, Brown has a vice-champion who, when pushed by someone like Piastri, has constantly upped his game, and it's fair to say that only Verstappen could be pegged as a better driver than Norris at this stage of their careers, which says a huge amount for the Briton.

After claiming every F1 constructors' world title since 2010, neither Mercedes nor Red Bull was in the hunt at the 2024 F1 season finale in Abu Dhabi. It was a Ferrari versus McLaren showdown, which Brown's team won on the night at Yas Marina Circuit.

On the downside, I think McLaren did not seriously believe Norris had a title tilt, which exposed their lack of experience in what was an extremely tough drivers' title battle, where Verstappen too often rubbed their noses in it. "Papaya Rules" and the like also did them no favours.

In fact, a decent driver (which Sergio Perez, by his own admission, was not this past season) in the other Red Bull may have written a different story. It is what it is for 2024: Verstappen is a well-deserved four-time F1 world champion, and McLaren is equally deserving of their ninth Big One.

For many, many years, winning F1 championships was intrinsically part of McLaren's DNA. That winning streak went dormant for over two decades as they lost their way until they got a handle on this current-era F1 rules package with the formidable McLaren MCL38.

If you are "as good as your last race," McLaren rivals will spend the winter reminded of their front-row lockout for the Abu Dhabi finale and what might have been a one-two in the race had Verstappen's mean streak not gotten the better of him. Nevertheless, Norris controlled the race to take victory number four of '24. Rivals have been warned for 2025, and McLaren is the team to beat.

A final thought. Circling back to McLaren's wing spreading under Brown's watch, with Formula 1, IndyCar, DTM, GT3, and even WEC on the cards, the penny dropped for me. Bruce McLaren would've been ultra-proud of how Dennis built his team and the F1 titles they won under his leadership.

However, Bruce was a racer. His cars, designed by him, competed in F1, F2, F5000, IndyCar, sportscars, Can-Am, etc. The McLaren the founder had in mind is far less Ron Dennis and far more what Zak Brown is creating with expansion in several series. And now that they are winning again in F1, it all makes sense.

Take a bow, McLaren CEO Zak Brown. Now to keep the momentum going...