The updated Drivers\u2019 and Constructors\u2019 Championship standings<\/a><\/p>\nSuccess, though, brings with it different problems with Brown reportedly telling Simon Lazenby that retaining key personnel is now the challenge.<\/p>\n
Last year McLaren locked in team principal Andrea Stella, signing the Italian for \u201cmultiple years\u201d, while technical director of aerodynamics Peter Prodromou also extended with the team. Chief designer Marshall joined the team in 2024 on a mulWi-year contract.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Sky F1 podcast, Lazenby said: \u201cI spoke to Zak earlier this year, he said the biggest challenge he\u2019s got now is not to break the band up, because it\u2019s happened to all of the great teams in the past [including] Mercedes and Red Bull.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re on top, people start to poach your best people. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s locked them all down contractually, because he\u2019s got a very decent Band of Brothers \u2013 and sisters \u2013 at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guest pundit and three-time W Series winner Jamie Chadwick agreed that keeping the team together would be key to McLaren\u2019s continued success.<\/p>\n
However, she warned that doing that would entail more than just on-track performance; it\u2019s also about the environment and atmosphere within the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly,\u201d she said, \u201cthat\u2019s the thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s also that\u2019s where environment and culture within a team is very important.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can be winning, but the culture and the environment cannot be nice and not be somewhere that you want to come into work. You want to succeed and you want everyone to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think that\u2019s what they do a very, very good job of. It\u2019s funny, you speak to most people that work there and they enjoy it, and they\u2019re happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMotorsport is a tough world for everyone. It\u2019s a huge amount of weekends away. It\u2019s a lifestyle. It\u2019s not a job. A lot of the time you are fully committed to being in a race team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a very important thing that they need to keep harmony within, and that does also stem from the drivers and the dynamic between them and the rest of the team. So it\u2019s something they do a great job of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to keep that and then also they need to keep on top. Everyone wants to win. No one wants to be always finishing at the back. So keeping on top is important as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2018jeans\u2019 effect at McLaren<\/p>\n
Establishing an environment where people are happy and want to work sometimes comes down to the little things \u2013 like jeans.<\/p>\n
The conversation about the atmosphere reminded Kravitz of a time when McLaren banned jeans, even booting out a sound technician who was visiting the McLaren Technology Centre for Sky Sports for wearing jeans.<\/p>\n
Today, according to Kravitz, denim is permitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimon, do you think the new McLaren is a more chilled-out place to work?\u201d Kravitz asked. \u201cApparently, you\u2019re allowed to wear jeans there.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you remember \u2013 was it the first launch that you came to in 2012? \u2013 when one our sound guys was kicked out because he was wearing jeans?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lazenby: \u201cI didn\u2019t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kravitz continued: \u201cYou weren\u2019t allowed to wear jeans in the McLaren Technology Centre. Ron Dennis [former McLaren CEO and chairman] would never allow you to wear jeans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think you can now wear jeans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Jamie says, chilled out, a bit more of a chilled out place, people respond to that. And maybe that\u2019s reflected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lazenby added: \u201cIt\u2019s the little things, isn\u2019t it? But a lot of it comes from top down.<\/p>\n
\u201cZak needs to be serious when he\u2019s serious, but he can be quite a chill cat. And I think that\u2019s rubbing off on the rest of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read next: Has McLaren really been playing favourites in Norris v Piastri title fight?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren\u2019s healthy working culture under Zak Brown has been cited as key to the team\u2019s hopes of holding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,818,913,806,805,803,804,44,17165,2103,4702,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-210667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-mclaren","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-popular","18":"tag-ron-dennis","19":"tag-sky-f1","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}