As a boyhood McLaren fan, Zak understands what this success means more than most. “It’s amazing,” he reiterates.
Referring to Zak as a sports fan does his interest in sports a disservice. The California native grew up on a steady diet of baseball, ice hockey, and motorsports, and has since taken up golf, following the transformative realisation that it isn’t “an old guy’s game.”
His love of speed was sparked in childhood, when his parents had taken him to the 1981 Long Beach Grand Prix. “I remember watching Alan Jones’ win like it was yesterday and still have the race programme,” he posted on Instagram a few years ago, ahead of driving Jones’ FW07B around the circuit in the F1 Historic Challenge.
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That early fascination evolved into an obsession, as he attended NASCAR and IMSA GT races at the Riverside International Raceway circuit in California, while continuing to follow Formula 1 on television. In the same way he supports the St. Louis Cardinals in the MLB and cheers on the LA Kings in the NHL, McLaren is his team in motor racing. The first time he remembers watching us, he recalls, was in the 1988 season, when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were battling it out for the title as teammates.
“They were always winning races and winning Championships,” Zak says, “Back then, I was an aspiring racing driver, and my desire was to race for McLaren. I didn’t really have management in my mind – not in a million years did I think I would be in the fortunate position that I am, leading such an amazing racing team.”
Zak competed full-time across America and Europe for a decade and still climbs into the cockpit of a race car at every opportunity, but his focus is now firmly on putting McLaren Racing in the best position possible to deliver silverware.