Zak Brown: Red Bull can make the turnaround like McLaren

– Red Bull experienced the worst start to a Formula 1 season in eleven years in 2026. For the first time since 2015, the Bulls did not secure a podium finish in any of the first three races. Nevertheless, McLaren boss Zak Brown emphasizes: “It would be very foolish to write off Red Bull.”

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“We see how quickly the sport can change and how quickly you can become competitive,” says Brown. Nevertheless, the 54-year-old also knows that Red Bull will need some time. “They have to do a kind of small reset,” he explains.

“They have lost many people: Christian [Horner], [Jonathan] Wheatley, finally also GP [Lambiase] and [Adrian] Newey,” Brown recalls. But McLaren in particular could be a good example that teams can come back from a crisis all the way to the top.

When Brown took over the reins at McLaren in 2018, the team had just finished the 2017 season in ninth and second to last place in the constructors’ championship. In 2024, they became constructors’ world champions for the first time in this millennium, and a year later they even won both world titles.

“I appreciate Laurent [Mekies] very much. I think he is doing a very good job,” says Brown about the still relatively new Red Bull team principal and emphasizes: “He is technically skilled, he is young, and now he has to replace the people he lost and rebuild the team.”

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“I have no doubt that he will manage it, and just as McLaren had immense talent that just needed to be unleashed, I think it’s probably the same with Red Bull,” says the McLaren boss.

He also recalls: “Until not too long ago, they were very dominant, so there is a lot of talent there, and I think he just has to channel it in the right direction.” With Max Verstappen at the wheel, the Bulls won the drivers’ world championship four times in a row between 2021 and 2024.

In 2025, this streak was broken after a weak start to the season, but even then Verstappen scored significantly more points than all other drivers in the second half of the season. Brown therefore has no doubt that Red Bull can make it back to the front.

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The question, however, is how long that will take.