Zak Brown – Syndication Server

Brown joins IndyCar marketing taskforce

Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles has recruited McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown to be part of a small new taskforce designed to help the IndyCar Series improve its marketing efforts. More accurately, and humorously, Miles stated as such in an …

Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles has recruited McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown to be part of a small new taskforce designed to help the IndyCar Series improve its marketing efforts.

More accurately, and humorously, Miles stated as such in an interview before the outreach to Brown had actually been made. The oversight was handled with grace.

“I’ve read that,” Brown said in a wry manner. “I’ve since spoken with him. And I’m happy to help because I definitely have lots of opinions on opportunities I think we’re missing to make the sport much better and to capitalize on what I think the sport can become.”

As a young driver on the American and European junior open-wheel scene, Brown stood out among his rivals with his ability to attract sponsors. After moving into the business side of racing with the formation of the ultra-successful Just Marketing Incorporated, his savvy is what drew the interest of McLaren where he’s led the Formula 1 team while finding partners who’ve infused the company with immense investments.

Conversely, Penske’s core strength have been demonstrated in business-to-business deals which, for the most part, have required minimal marketing on behalf of the series’ owner. Recruiting Brown and other sharp marketing minds to address IndyCar’s greatest longstanding weakness is a smart move, and as the Los Angeles native said, he’s not lacking in opinions or ideas where the series can make vast improvements.

“I think there’s a lot of room for optimizing the race schedule,” Brown said. “I think some of these most recent changes are OK. Having a non-championship race once the season started…preseason…testing…race…might make a lot more sense. I think it’s unfortunate to lose Texas, which is a great market. I think the doubleheader thing, sponsors don’t view it as two races. It’s one weekend, so I don’t think doubleheaders is the solution to expanding the race calendar.

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“I think we need some, and I’ve said this for a while now, new cars. I think we shouldn’t be introducing new technology in the middle of the season. I think that’s high risk for a little reward with hybrids coming. Why don’t we get this season done and out of the way? What’s the rush to do it with seven eight races to go? Wouldn’t it just be better to get all the testing done and give all the teams a chance to properly modify their equipment and come at it in ’25?

“I think the drivers are the stars and we need to put them on a pedestal. And proper podiums. That might sound like a small thing, but if you look at the attention that podium ceremonies get you in the imagery that comes from that…

Brown was among the many who felt embarrassed for the series and its drivers who stood on a cut-rate podium at The Thermal Club’s $1 Million Challenge.

“I thought that was not adequate for the level of IndyCar,” he continued. “I think you need to invest. And then I think these can be sponsored — a proper podium. Now, sometimes that might mean you have to invest and then go get the sponsors and just wait for the sponsor, but I think so much social media and imagery and exposures created from the podium, to not have proper podiums in a missed opportunity.”

Brown wasn’t impressed with the podium at the Thermal Club. James Black/IndyCar Media

Formula 1’s broadcasts are rich with analysis and strategy projections that engage viewers on a deeper level. It’s another area where Brown would welcome changes for IndyCar.

“I think, with whoever the new broadcaster is — whether that’s the same broadcast or whatever our new TV deal is — I think we can do a better job of the way we show the races,” he said. “I think getting into predictive scenarios (would be good.) I hear a lot of, ‘They’re on red tires.’ Unless you’re really avid fan, and I consider myself to be an avid fan, I’d like to have next-level of information, which is, ‘Soft tires, so they’re going to be a half a second lap faster for eight laps and if Pato doesn’t catch Josef by lap 8, his tires are going to fall off and the strategy wouldn’t work.’

“So helping fans understand how races play out and strategies behind them, because I don’t think that’s necessarily always clear, I think there’s room for improvement.”

Car counts, charters, and IndyCar’s overall value was another major area of concern for Brown.

“We need to make sure that we focus on quality over quantity,” he said. “I think the NASCAR show is no worse off by having a smaller car count than the magical ‘you have to have 43 cars.’

“We have 20 cars in Formula 1, 27 (Indy) cars, 29 cars, create a lot of red flags at Nashville, create a lot of yellows in Laguna Seca. So I think we need to be very focused on quality over quantity on what we do. I don’t think the fan pays too much attention after about 20 cars. So what are those other 6, 7, 8, 9 cars bringing to the table other than a lot of times creating red flags?

“So I think there’s lots of opportunities for improvement. I think the schedule would really need to get into the East Coast. I think there’s two things to play for growing the value of the sport. There’s cash generative, but then there’s also franchise value.”

Having brought McLaren into the all-electric Formula E series ahead of he 2022-23 season, Brown wonders how a 10-year-old series with a modest fan base is worth so much more than IndyCar whose roots extend back more than a century.

“If you look at what Formula E is worth, and I don’t know what number IndyCar was purchased for — if you believe the rumors of 300 million-ish — but on the finance side, when Formula E is trading at twice that, with all due respect to Formula E, it does not have the history of IndyCar, there’s a lot of value creation that I think is a massive opportunity for growth,” he said.

“So I think you can take a view, and you can invest in doing street races, where the street races themselves might not make the money, or maybe we could potentially lose a few bucks, but if that helped (improved) the valuation of IndyCar and you limited the amount of teams and therefore had a scenario if you had more demand and supply because you’re limited to — pick a number — 22 teams, you can create a dynamic where IndyCar racing is worth a lot more because of the demand; you get a more lucrative media deal.

“You have more sponsors that come in, therefore more teams that want to come in. But if you’re limited on teams, you then have to create franchise value. So I think that’s what we as an industry need to be looking at.”

Brown excited for Suzuka after McLaren gains

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is “very excited” about the team’s chances at the Japanese Grand Prix following a step forward in performance in Australia. Oscar Piastri finished fourth at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but struggled to pass Lewis …

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is “very excited” about the team’s chances at the Japanese Grand Prix following a step forward in performance in Australia.

Oscar Piastri finished fourth at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but struggled to pass Lewis Hamilton for much of the race with a lack of top speed, even when DRS was open, hurting his chances. After a more competitive showing in Melbourne where Lando Norris finished third ahead of Piastri again in fourth, Brown says McLaren has already made progress with that area of weakness.

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“We made some changes to address that and we still have work to do but where we were pretty far off with our DRS in Saudi I think we’ve taken a nice step forward and it’s something for us to continue to build on,” Brown told SpeedCity Broadcasting.

“I’m very excited, I think we should be pretty strong in Suzuka.”

Norris claimed he should have finished second in Melbourne having run there in the early part of the race before Charles Leclerc undercut him in the pits, but Brown says the lost position shouldn’t overshadow how competitive overall the team was.

“It was pretty close, we were only a few seconds off. You don’t know what [Leclerc] had left in the tank, but clearly we were very competitive. We were pretty close to the front. I think any time your cars can see the winner, that’s a pretty good thing.”

However, there were words of caution from Norris himself, who – despite a double podium finish at Suzuka last season – doesn’t believe McLaren’s strong start to 2024 makes a repeat any more likely, given the gains Ferrari has made this season.

“You’ve got a lot of high speed,” Norris said. “The problem is Ferrari have improved their high speed a lot and that’s where they were struggling last year. So that’s why they’ve been able to take such a good step forward.

“I think we can still have a good weekend. We can still look forward to it. And I would love to say that if we can get two cars on a podium again, it would be a lovely weekend. But I think we have two more cars this year that we’re competing against on these types of circuits, not just Max [Verstappen].”

McLaren heads to Japan after announcing an organizational update that saw former Ferrari engineer David Sanchez departing after just three months with the team.

Brown to remain McLaren Racing CEO until 2030 after extension

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has been rewarded for recent progress within the team with a contract extension that will keep him in his role until at least 2030. Brown joined McLaren in late 2016, going on to become CEO of McLaren Racing in 2018, a …

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has been rewarded for recent progress within the team with a contract extension that will keep him in his role until at least 2030.

Brown joined McLaren in late 2016, going on to become CEO of McLaren Racing in 2018, a position he has held ever since. The Californian is regularly the team’s spokesperson but has also overseen multiple changes in the wider racing operation, entering and winning races in the likes of IndyCar and Formula E.

The Formula 1 team has also made significant strides in recent seasons, with a major turnaround in form after an overhaul of the technical team seeing McLaren finish fourth in the constructors’ championship last year and end the season regularly fighting to be the second-quickest team.

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“I am thrilled to continue leading McLaren Racing and to be a part of such a historic race team,” Brown said “It is a privilege to work alongside the talented men and women across McLaren Racing’s different race series. Together, we will continue to push the boundaries of motorsport and strive for the highest performance on and off the track.”

The decision to extend Brown’s contract comes with the support of McLaren Group executive chairman Paul Walsh, who says Brown’s been central to the team picking up regular podiums in the latter part of last season.

“Zak has demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities and has been instrumental in driving McLaren Racing forward,” Walsh said. “His extension reflects our confidence in his ability to lead the team to even greater success in the years to come.”

Brown installed Andrea Stella as team principal of McLaren in Formula 1 last year, then being able to secure Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris on longer-terms deals over the past seven months.

Brown joins calls for transparency over Wolff while other bosses reiterate confidence in FIA

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says Susie Wolff deserves greater transparency from the FIA regarding its investigation of interference in allegations of potential conflict of interest, but multiple team bosses insist they have confidence in the …

Wolff has launched legal action against the FIA in French courts, following statements relating to a potential conflict of interest investigation involving the F1 Academy managing director and her husband Toto Wolff in December last year.

With the FIA’s Ethics Committee having cleared Mohammed Ben Sulayem of any wrongdoing relating to interference allegations, and a grievance against Red Bull team principal Christian Horner dismissed — both following independent investigations initiated by their parent companies — Brown says calls for transparency have a different meaning depending on each topic.

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“The different situations are all different, so I don’t think there’s kind of a one-size-fits-all,” Brown said. “I think we just need to have confidence that the FIA, there’s various statutes as far as how we conduct ourselves, that they’re looking to matters when there’s a whistleblower situation or someone brings forward an issue.

“There are certain things that we can be aware of and not aware of from a confidentiality standpoint, but are things being looked into? Are all sides being heard equally? And then when conclusions are brought forward, what was the process and the conclusion?

“I don’t think, given confidentiality, and these various natures, that we’re necessarily entitled to know all the details. I just think we need to have the confidence that when someone brings forward an issue that we know it’s been looked into independently, [that] all parties have been heard. And I think we should all welcome that. So if someone’s involved in a situation, they should welcome transparency and welcome the FIA looking into the situation from all parties.

“In Susie’s case, she’s one of the most respected people in motorsport and from the limited information I have think, that isn’t quite aware of what she was being looked into and then why she wasn’t being looked into. So I think really the transparency is as much for her.

“And then, we have had conclusion on the FIA race-related issues. I think we have a general sense of what the issue was, and they said there wasn’t an issue. Then in the other instance [involving Red Bull] we’ve kind of heard from one side. It looks like the other side is appealing, and just to have confidence that she’s been heard and that the FIA’s looked into it and is happy with the conclusion.”

Brown stated a summary report being provided would be helpful to understand certain matters, with Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur adding that it’s tough for many to comment given their limited knowledge of the situations involved.

“I don’t think that we have another option than to be confident,” Vasseur said. “We don’t know who is a whistleblower. We don’t know what was the cause of the whistleblower. And don’t ask us to have an opinion at the end. Either we have an opinion on the global system or not, but on this case, it’s quite impossible for us. I’m probably too naive, but we have to be confident with the system.”

With Stake Sauber team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi saying “we have full confidence in the FIA and all the processes that are in place,” Peter Bayer — who was the FIA’s secretary general before joining RB as CEO last year — explained some of the structure within the governing body.

“We have to have confidence in the organization,” Bayer said. “It’s the same when we have a steward’s decision or others sometimes. We might not like the decisions, but ultimately, we have to be happy with the process.

“From my time at the FIA, it is an independent body, which is led by the Ethics Committee President, Francois Bellanger, and they have their independent findings. And as the president himself was concerned, they were the ones who had to ultimately deal with the matter. So again, I think we need to have confidence. And they came out with a statement.

“I guess another question we have to ask ourselves is, what is actually the remit of the FIA? They are the regulator and legislator of motorsport. So some questions we might want them to answer, probably they cannot answer, while others, clearly, they have to answer. So the ones they have to answer, like a president potentially interfering into a stewards’ decision, that is very, very important for us to have confidence and to trust them. And yes, we do.”

Middle East now a key center of motorsport, says McLaren’s Brown

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says that the Middle East should now be considered in the same group as the likes of the U.S and the UK when it comes to motorsport powerhouse regions following two decades of rapid expansion. Brown pointed to his own …

Brown pointed to his own team’s Bahrain ownership and importance of the region for partners and sponsors for legitimizing its importance for the motorsport industry as a whole.

“On the Formula 1 schedule, we’ve got four grands prix in the region, and then when I talk to business leader and our partners, they talk about how important the region is to them,” Brown said. “I think it’s great that it all kind of started in Bahrain, which of course is the owner of McLaren Racing, with the first grand prix in the region and the first racing team in the region, so I think we’re already a very important market for the fans, the racing teams, for the sport, and for our sponsors.”

A key player at the moment is Saudi Arabia, which as well as hosting the second and third rounds of the Formula E season, the Dakar Rally at the start of this year, the inaugural E1 electric powerboat race, this week’s Extreme E opener and a Formula 1 grand prix all in the space of nine weeks. But His Royal Highness Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Abdullah Al Faisal, president of the Saudi Arabia automobile and motorcycle federation reiterated previous comments that the country isn’t just about hosting events, and wants to increase its motorsport presence further in the coming years.

“A lot of things are happening in Saudi, and there are a lot of things that we’ve done,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a place in the world that hosts all these events, and still we haven’t finished our infrastructure.

“When (a planned purpose-built motorsport facility in) Qiddiya opens, that’s going to take us to a different level. And all the plans that we have for the grassroots that will transform our participation in motorsports — the potential in Saudi Arabia is very big.

“We’re halfway; we’ve achieved a lot of things in terms of hosting events so now we need to discover and give the new generation the platform so they can shine and rise and succeed and also take us to the next level. We have lots of boys and girls in Saudi that are very ambitious, very committed, and very talented and by hosting Formula E and other events, they’ve been inspired.”

United Autosports USA diving headfirst into IMSA

Major class restructuring in both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the World Endurance Championship created the perfect storm for growth in IMSA’s LMP2 class, which is going from seven full-season entries to 11 for 2024. It also created the perfect opportunity for Richard Dean and Zak Brown’s United Autosports team to seek its next challenge.

United Autosports USA will field two ORECA 07 Gibsons in the LMP2 class in the WeatherTech Championship, the only two-car team in the class. Reigning LMP2 champ Ben Keating will partner with Ben Hanley in the No.2 (Nico Pino serving as the third driver for Michelin Endurance Cup races), while Dan Goldburg and Paul Di Resta will drive the No.22, joined by Bijoy Garg for the endurance races.

Being a European-based team, there was much work to do to launch a full-season effort in the WeatherTech Championship. Enter Billy Glavin and the Jr III racing shop. The Mooresville, N.C. shop proved the perfect base for United, and with Glavin winding down Jr III’s long and successful LMP3 program, he was available to run the operation as general manager.

“It’s a big commitment for a European team to come in and take on a full season,” said Dean, co-owner and CEO of United Autosports, “so you need a push to do it. And LMP2 coming out of WEC was just exactly what we needed. We just needed that reason, that push over the line. We’ve been talking about this for a while, so let’s go and try to do it properly. Let’s not just try and commute in and out.

“That’s why we’ve partnered with Billy Glavin at Jr. III. His situation, being in LMP3 that’s coming out of WeatherTech, and us coming in, our situation sort of emerged perfectly to give us what we needed — quality people and a base in Charlotte. It’s a shortcut for us to set up a workshop here. I took one look around his place and I spent a day with him and it was a ready-made step into into the U.S. with a permanent base.”

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United Autosports has competed at Daytona, and Dean’s father raced there, but this will be the first full-season effort from the team. United has competed in WEC, European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series and elsewhere, and will continue racing LMP2 in ELMS as well as starting a new LMGT3 program in WEC with McLaren. But IMSA has been a big pull all along.

“IMSA has just got this sort of electric atmosphere around the racing. And everybody loves it, everybody from those sat in the grandstands to in the pit lane, the media people, the mechanics … everybody gets excited and invigorated,” Dean said. “So when we have our planning meetings, people are pushing, ‘Can we do more IMSA races?’ So we’re always pulled towards it. For us, having taken on and won in European Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship and Le Mans, the thing we haven’t done is we haven’t won here in IMSA. We’ve done Sebring, we’ve done Daytona, but we haven’t won here. So I’m not saying we’re going to come here and win, but it’s our ambition to have a go at it.”

United Autosports is well stocked with talent in and out of the cockpits of its two ORECA entries. Motorsport Images

They are having a go with an impressive driver lineup. Keating is a two-time IMSA champ, a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner, the defending WeatherTech Championship LMP2 title holder and the 2023 WEC champion in GTE-Am. Hanley is an Asian Le Mans champion and won the 2023 Michelin Endurance Cup in LMP2. Di Resta is a Le Mans winner in LMP2. Goldburg is a rookie in LMP2 and the WeatherTech Championship, but has proven his chops in VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3.

“To win a race, you’ve got to have the best car, the best team, the best people and the best drivers. So it’s down to us now because [Keating’s] a race winner,” said Dean. “He knows what he wants and the discussions I’ve had with him since we started talking about it and since we shook hands… he’s already driving the team as well and adding his experience to it, so it’s massively important. Dan Goldburg, the bronze in the other car, also knows his way around the tracks and he knows his way around the IMSA paddock.”

“I like to think that we’ve really copied a Hypercar factory structure and we’re applying it in a smaller fashion in LMP2,” says Richard Dean. JEP/Motorsport Images

So United Autosports comes to the WeatherTech Championship with a winning record, a great driver lineup and, with Glavin on board, a structure in place to facilitate it all. But there has to be some secret to the team’s success beyond Dean’s and Brown’s experience. While the team has had some great drivers such as Filipe Albuquerque, Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Alex Lynn in its ranks, that doesn’t guarantee success. So what’s the recipe?

“There’s a common theme, I suppose, that says employ the best people you can, let them do the job, don’t interfere with them. That’s really what we’ve tried to do,” Dean said of the team’s general philosophy. “We hired a new technical director two years ago — Jakob Andreasen, who came from Toyota’s Hypercar program — with a view to improving not just technically; there’s a lot of detail around getting the best out of an ORECA, because everybody’s got access to the same car, tires, engine equipment. So the details are important.

“But you know, there are a couple of people — Jakob coming from Toyota is one of them — that understand the structure and organizational charts of how a team can operate. With the size that we are, as we’ve been growing, you don’t want to lose control of that. So you need a structure and you need an organizational chart within your staff, and reportability and accountability. I think probably we are slightly different to most teams at this level, because I like to think that we’ve really copied a Hypercar factory structure and we’re applying it in a smaller fashion in LMP2.”

Dean and his squad will have their first shot at showing that the recipe works when the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the 2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, takes place Jan. 23-26.

McLaren has two drivers capable of winning the championship – Brown

McLaren’s driver line-up of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are both capable of delivering a world championship as the team gets closer to the standards it needs, according to Zak Brown. Daniel Ricciardo was released one year before the end of his …

McLaren’s driver line-up of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are both capable of delivering a world championship as the team gets closer to the standards it needs, according to Zak Brown.

Daniel Ricciardo was released one year before the end of his contract after two tough years at McLaren, with rookie Piastri signed as his replacement after Alpine failed to secure his future. While Brown says he retains a good relationship with Ricciardo – who has since returned to a race seat with the team most recently known as AlphaTauri – he sees the drivers as the most recent area that has been proven to be clicking as McLaren moves closer to the front.

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“I’m very happy Daniel is back in Formula 1,” Brown said. “Daniel has always been great to work with, he’s always been a great friend. It was never a divorce that made anybody happy. So I’m very happy he’s on the grid. We still exchange notes on a somewhat regular basis, so I’m very happy that we’ve ended up maintaining a good relationship.

“And then of course very happy that Oscar has performed in the way he has, and we’ve got visibility to what our driver line-up looks like for the foreseeable future with a very experienced 24-year-old and an awesome rookie at 22.

“That’s a pretty awesome driver line-up as we look at what we need to get back to winning world championships, it starts with two drivers that are capable of winning the world championship. I think we’ve got that.”

Brown says the way other aspects are working so well highlight the potential within McLaren, with team principal Andrea Stella monitoring how close it is to being ready to fight of titles.

“I think we have the team. I think we now have the resources and the technology, and now we just need to continue to push forward and the culture.

“The pit stops are great. I think that illustrates how well the team is working together. So we’ve just got to kind of get that pit stop culture in every single part of the racing team. I think we’re there.

“Andrea has this kind of world championship material terminology that he uses, and this pie chart. It started at half green, quarter amber, quarter red. And the green is 75%, and the amber and the red is reduced, and I think we just need a little bit more time to get it to be all green.”

Zak Brown samples ex-Ricciardo McLaren

Last week McLaren gave seat time to IndyCar race winner Pato O’Ward and 2022 Le Mans 24 Hour winner Ryo Hirakawa at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as part of its Testing Of Previous Cars program, but while the team was out in Spain, team principal …

Separate from the team’s official driver development activities, Brown swapped the pit wall for the pit lane, and got behind the wheel of an ex-Daniel Ricciardo MCL35M for a handful of laps.

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The car that took Ricciardo to victory in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix – McLaren’s most recent F1 race win, and Brown’s first at the helm of the team – was central to a bet between the pair, with Ricciardo getting a run out in an ex-Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet Monte Carlo owned by Brown, and Brown getting a Monza-themed tattoo in return as a result of the win.

Brown has since taken personal ownership of the car, and it has recently undergone a full rebuild, with him describing his recent outing in it as a “quick shakedown”.

With Brown taking over stewardship of the car, it joins an extensive collection of race winning F1 machines in his personal collection, including Ayrton Senna’s 1991 Monaco Grand Prix-winning MP4/6, Mika Hakkinen’s British Grand Prix-winning MP4-16, and Lewis Hamilton’s 2012 MP4-27 that won the Italian and United States Grands Prix.

Aside from McLarens, Brown owns several Williams, including Alan Jones’ Williams FW07B which he’s raced at Laguna Seca and Long Beach in recent years, and Jody Scheckter’s 1977 Argentine Grand Prix-winning Wolf WR1, the only car besides the Brawn BGP001 to win on its debut.

The Mercedes W04 with which Lewis Hamilton won his first race for Mercedes in Hungary in 2013 was also previously in Brown’s collection, having been acquired before he took his is role at McLaren. The car, which is one of the few modern Mercedes F1 cars outside the team’s ownership, will be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s on November 17 ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where the auction house anticipates it fetching between $10-15 million.

Ride along with Zak Brown in Dan Gurney’s 1970 McLaren M8D

Ride with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown in the 1970 McLaren M8D raced by the late Dan Gurney, as Brown competes at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion on August 19, 2023. Or click HERE to watch on YouTube.

Ride with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown in the 1970 McLaren M8D raced by the late Dan Gurney, as Brown competes at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion on August 19, 2023.

Or click HERE to watch on YouTube.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown says F1 championship would be tighter with ‘two Sergios’ at Red Bull

The McLaren boss didn’t mince words about Sergio Perez when it came to his compliments of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

The 2023 Formula 1 season has been utterly dominated by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. As a result, lots of discussion has flared around the performance of his teammate [autotag]Sergio Perez[/autotag], who is currently 125 points back from Verstappen in the same car — and McLaren CEO [autotag]Zak Brown[/autotag], whether intentionally or not, seemed to add some fuel to that fire.

Speaking to ESPN’s Nate Saunders, Brown explained that the current F1 season aside from Verstappen has still had some excitement across the year. In explaining so, Perez seemed to catch some strays:

“As much as Red Bull’s killing everyone right now… it’s really Max is killing everyone right now. That Max, Red Bull combination is just unbeatable at the moment and Max and the team isn’t making any mistakes. If they had two Sergios in the car, with all due respect, this championship would kind of be wide open. So you’ve got something pretty special going on with Max and Red Bull.”

Brown is right about one thing — the pair of Verstappen and his car this season has been nothing short of unprecedented. Not only has Verstappen been excellent, but his car has yet to DNF during a race across the entire season. That winning combo has allowed Verstappen to win 10 of 12 possible races so far in 2023.

Perez, meanwhile, has been eliminated in Q3 three times in 2023 and is currently only 40 points clear of third-place Fernando Alonso. His performance this year has drawn some criticism from fans and pundits alike, so his form after the summer break will be important to note.

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