The business of Formula 1: inside McLaren HQ | FT Scoreboard

F1 is undergoing a kind of revolution, with new rules, new tech, new teams, and new fans - boosted by the Netflix show Drive to Survive. Ahead of the first race of the season in Bahrain, the FT goes behind the scenes at the McLaren Technology Centre, where the team is competing to get their cars back to the front of the grid
#Formula1 #McLaren #Saudi Arabia
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[@TheShepTV]

This was obviously filmed before pre-season testing 😂

[@naren_legha]

🤣🤣

[@arkadandfortuna1582]

Dang the internet has no mercy…😂

[@tbz1551]

Zac Brown has one more year, two tops! It can only be about increasing brand recognition for so long… popularity is no substitute for winning.

[@GloomGaiGar]

It's going to take more than that to even keep within 5 seconds of Red Bull or Ferrari

[@carlunaden]

Eh, I don't see McLaren being as heavily into office politics as Ferrari. Besides, he isn't team principal.

[@mclarenm1]

zac brown is the face of McLaren.....he is not going out anytime soon...he will stay and make this brand more popular

[@rhteixeira5176]

Unfortunately I feel like the only area where mclaren does a good job is on their marketing department.. hopefully Lando doesn’t waste too much time there

[@VirtousStoic]

He's a sim driver bro, he will never be a world class top 1 or 2 driver no matter what team he joins bro And McLaren new driver is gonna out perform him, just watch and see The only Achilles heel of that new driver is his mind. If he can't keep it cool his performances won't be consistent and he will choke

[@JtheMitch]

Pit stops are good

[@tobyclements3791]

@@VirtousStoic Lando is arguably as much of a sim driver as Max Verstappen.

[@arkadandfortuna1582]

What DTS did to the F1 was a blessing for the sport as a whole. It opened up a whole new main stream audience that was difficult to do without it, good behind the scenes as well as driver and principal backstories…. As a long time Indy Car fan I only periodically watched F1, but since 2018, I watched it more (F1 broadcast was actually difficult to follow due to broadcast quality differences vs Indy broadcasts) just finished watching season5 dts Nice! (But not much about Seb or Goatifi on this)

[@cameronwest8188]

In what ways did you prefer the quality of Indy’s broadcasts to the SkySports F1 broadcast? Any particular aspects?

[@johredtaoey9684]

This Aged well

[@TheInfantry98]

Lmao bruh

[@economicsofentertainment]

I am really enjoying where the sport is heading. Great video!

[@manaswats6854]

McLaren is really all about glamour and fame off the track but under-delivery on the track. What you were hiding? The Car is almost the same

[@VirtousStoic]

So has Ferrari been for years realy before last year McLaren and Ferrari were horrible car builders and teams. Their existence was just for fame for their brand and personal car sales So it's good Ferrari finally woke up. McLaren is almost bankrupt so they need to do well this year and sell more cars or they are gonna he acquired by some billionaire lol

[@markim5087]

I hate that so many auto companies,and now Motorsports are going to net zero I don’t watch the AA batteries on wheels race, and never will, there’s no excitement, there’s zero thrill simply because that sound that starts in your ears and runs down your spine and across the floor to the next fan as the car flies past the grandstand is gone with electric cars..and so I’m I as a huge Motorsports fan, guess we are a dying breed..

[@shadiomar6729]

We need this in egypt

[@Nick-xc4fy]

Sounds like McLaren are back where they started when Zac joined.

[@julian2870]

You guys couldn’t have picked a worse team this year 😂😂😂😂😂

[@syncopatedsteve]

Has F1 seen a surge in popularity?

[@VirtousStoic]

It's still one of the lowest watched sports worldwide. But it has grown its markets share and fanbase alot. But ys still small u can Google the data

[@GloomGaiGar]

Yes. Stil far from the top though. Motorsport in general is still relatively niche.

[@MuhammadIrfan-ye5zf]

Yes but not really (the market share is still small) Motorsport has always been sport for the affluents so having small market share is understandable.

[@NISHUGARVU]

It's surprising that MACLAREN collaborated in this video 🤣

[@arrjay3814]

You’re a British company so maybe consider FTSE100 companies

[@tobyclements3791]

… such as British American Tobacco and Unilever?

[@arieldelgadodj]

I don’t think the same sponsors stand after Bahrain

[@aarav_ahuja]

still waiting for that chamionship winning car mclaren...

[@ChepoiIzzy]

McLaren now is the team with no ambitions.... only for marketing but not for their actions on the track. we see the proved when they still faced the same problem like a brake failure in Bahrain last year and this year. If they have ambitions they should avoid it happened again at the same track.

[@user-zz6iv2ou6f]

The business: Provide entertainment via artificially construed competition where the best are punished for winning and integrity doesn’t matter.

[@jackmundo4043]

I can tell by the fake smiles they’re in trouble.

[@mountainman6172]

DR3 somewhere laughing to the bank $16m to jump this sinking ship

[@mark_nz]

Maybe this is their problem - all about the business.

[@Jackbyrne77]

When are people going to start asking, “You know, come to think of it, what has Zak Brown done for McLaren?”. He came into the team when they had Honda engines. He got rid of those. Honda have now powered the back-to-back dual world champions. He took on Mercedes engines as a customer (hardly an inspired strategy), and they’re now making that engine look slow. Rumours are they may realign with Honda. All this while McLaren continually sells its business off to other investors, while taking loans out on its assets, including those lovely cars in the video. Meanwhile he’s moved the team into Indycar, FormulaE, and XtremeE (who cares). Teams of which have produced a grand total of 4 wins. So it’s not successful, spending a lot of money being unsuccessful, while selling shares and taking out loans it’s assets, all of which raises the further question, “Yeah there are a lot of sponsors on it’s cars, but how much are those sponsors paying for that right?”Obviously not enough.

[@mclarenm1]

zac is doing a great job....why not you replace zac and let's see what you can do

[@ulfw]

Formula One having been an utterly un-American sports (they have NASCAR for that) was what gave it it's unique culture. Now that it is becoming American I am starting to not recognise F1 anymore.

[@GloomGaiGar]

You can't tell the difference between NASCAR and F1. That's a you problem.

[@NaveenKumars-fy2wx]

Spencer ford what u are doing in McLaren. You have to work at ford

[@hawlikd]

At least F1 has left Russia & China!

[@dyslexiksteve2488]

I would love a job there

[@samdeepak]

McLaren is already behind the development curve. It would be a massive achievement if they break into the top 3 teams in the standings this season.

[@KHHVKimchicel]

They're making it!

[@nikodc2008]

I expected more from FT

[@boson2916]

Happy to see Mclaren setting foot on Formula 1 and E arena 🏁🏁

[@andrewstorm8240]

McLaren came close to major financial issues 2 years ago yet Zac looks like he has guided them through yet the f1 car this season has development issues

[@MrElias46]

When talking about sportswashing you forgot about Azerbaijan.

[@VanichShProts]

Oh please, what is this tremendous "amount of business [of putting stickers on cars] driven by B2B partners" Mr. Brown is taking about?🤡 It's called ads lol. Every business with an audience does it. The CEO could maybe give one of (I'm sure) many impressive examples of "a lot of business" this guy made with any 500 Fortune company 🤔 Pretty unimpressive promo video imo

[@chetanrawool]

You had to choose probably most struggling team for the video.

[@tomerlandson2524]

¨Back winning races¨ Just 1 DNF and a 17th spot in the opening grad prix in Bahrain haha... Ricardo leaving the team was his smartes move cause Mclaren is gonna struggle to fight for a spot over 6th in the constructors this year... xD

[@deutscheblitzkrieg7897]

Well... bad timing for this report to come out after the disastrous start at Bahrain.

[@kathrynwilson-pr8ls]

like

[@Jonpoo1]

Liberty’s F1 overhaul is going to be boring MBA professors and tutors for decades. It’s amazing what they’ve done in a relatively short space of time and how the face of the sport has changed. The crucial part is getting Americans involved and changing it from a weird European nerd sport to a highly commercialised entertainment series with racing weekends turned to festivals and the whole thing like a series of the Kardashians.

[@VirtousStoic]

Your opinion is odd, F1 is F1, the FIA sucks yes (they make weird decisions), the F1 GM sucks yes (he doesnt care about the sport only money and loves controversy/drama to get more views). But that's it. F1 is fun and notning is wrong with it. F1 drive to survive helped it grow alow which I am sure libery had a hand in If you don't like F1 current era leave and watch something else

[@GloomGaiGar]

As far as I can tell the racing is still racing. Fans can decide for themselves how to engage with the sport, they just have more options. Both on TV and live, I have always focused on the racing not the glamour or parties. The whole point of the Liberty's style is pull people via popular casual channels and eventually convert many of them into full time hardcore fans. Don't pretend. You were a casual fan with zero knowledge too.

[@martinc.720]

You cannot be serious

[@rossrreyes]

The word ‘championship’ and McLaren seem a universe apart. And getting even further away the last few years…

[@jaffarbh]

Correct me if I’m wrong but McLaren is now majority owned by an autocratic regime, Bahrain. People familiar with that country’s politics claim that the Prime Minister of Bahrain has been investing in this money-losing company simply because he loves the cars (and he can get away with making loses because… well he is the unaccountable Prime Minister!)

[@zet99darius87]

Everybody is autocratic, if look deep enough

[@jaffarbh]

@@zet99darius87 "all governments are autocratic, but some governments are more autocratic than others", in George Orwell's style

[@catchblack455]

@@jaffarbh ok then; one can argue what's worse - a "democratic" country shelling millions for "democracy" or a "regime" or whatever you call it, where people just live their life in their country with their rules and don't kill millions just cause they have oil or their political interests are somehow involved with that territory they don't even have border with. What have American owners and FIA democratic organization done besides promoting Ukrainian openly nazi regime last year while discriminating Russian drivers? I could only pull Lewis, an idol for millions, of Ukrainian flag and politics by showing his media team.. nazi camps for children open all over Ukraine and actual swastika tattoos, children wishing death to Russians on camera. I've never seen Bahrain financing nazi regimes in other countries, or Qatar, or other "autocratic" regimes that discriminate those who fight that same nazism they funded. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@jaffarbh]

@@catchblack455 You are barking at the wrong tree, mate!

[@jealva]

As long as Formula 1 never gives up combustion engines, I’ll keep watching and going to races.

[@markim5087]

Ok this might be cool, let’s hope so, let ya know when it’s over, yet there simply isn’t enough of F1 stuff in the USA, unlike nascar which is a open door..

[@markim5087]

WHAT THE HECK F1 IS NOW OWNED BY A AMERICAN COMPANY, ? the USA really WOW !

[@markim5087]

You won’t be able to call it Motorsports anymore, !!! Well technically a gas powered engine is an engine an electrical motor is a motor, so guess you can but still !!!

[@patraprateek]

Ok, so now we know the people at the factory responsible for 3rd in 2020 and the amazing car in 2023

[@kgabonkosi3647]

Did my man saying "back to winning races"? 8 days ago????

[@AM-ni3sz]

Zac has failed. The drivers are not the problem.

[@TofunmiAwodein]

"All important sponsorship stickers" 🤣

[@MRawesomeness213]

Ope. Back to their winning ways

[@jimmcculloch3786]

Si McLaren stuggling, no change there then!

[@hussienalsafi1149]

❤❤❤❤

[@VirtousStoic]

Love f1. McLaren vs aston will be fun this year. Let's see who beats who. I hate stroll dad he's so evil. I hope McLaren beats Aston. I hope Ferrari and merc can catch up to redbull this year Alonso lifted alipine above McLaren, and Ricardo tanked McLaren. It's good he's gone. He was only good at redbull his career went downhill since leaving them. Nice guy, talented, but mentally he stopped having that edge

[@GloomGaiGar]

mclaren will be beaten by both aston and alpine it seems

[@MuhammadIrfan-ye5zf]

This comment aged like milk

[@frankdatank5002]

Oh so is this why mclarens new 2023 car sucks so bad?! The joke of testing. Instead of working on the car they were giving interviews?? Seriously Zak brown needs to be fired. As a fellow American I was pulling for him but every year he talks a big game just to blow it. Year after year oh we are coming for top spot then they get 5 out of 10. 2022 it was daniels fault now in 2023 the car worse and no Daniel no Honda etc so who is he gonna blame?? Start with yourself for once Zak and step down Or hopefully get fired!!!!

[@diasx12]

Great video, but not everything needs to be about carbon emissions! Give it a rest!

[@julian2870]

Dumbass

[@MayorSom]

"Haven't won WDC since 2008 with Lewis Hamilton" _you love to hear that_