{"id":399074,"date":"2026-01-08T05:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399074\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T05:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:27:14","slug":"brown-reveals-mclarens-warfare-tactics-against-other-teams-poison-biscuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399074\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown reveals McLaren\u2019s warfare tactics against other teams: &#8216;Poison biscuits&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-teams\/mclaren\" title=\"McLaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a> CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/zak-brown\" title=\"Zak Brown\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zak Brown<\/a> has opened up on the mind games and tactics he employs in an effort to destabilise rival <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> teams.\u201c&#8230;but we are trying to, in our sport, destabilise other teams.\u201d- Zak BrownSpeaking on talkSPORT, the 54-year-old explained how the fierce competition in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> often pushes teams to adopt various strategies to gain an advantage over their rivals. Brown noted that the political nature of the sport extends far beyond the race track.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause it depends on what it is: drivers, teams, sponsors, employees. I mean, you\u2019re fighting hard, which I think is one of the things that Drive to Survive shows so well. In our sport, the competition off the field is as great as it is on the field, and it\u2019s very political,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-teams\/mclaren\" title=\"McLaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a> chief continued by emphasising that McLaren actively looks for ways to unsettle competitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not an expert in other sports, but we are trying to, in our sport, destabilise other teams. So we\u2019re not just trying to make our team as strong as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20251205-0320-6932e7ca91a9a.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"mclaren-zak-brown-jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>McLaren CEO, Zak Brown &#8211;\u00a0 Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n<p>Referencing the psychological edge teams often pursue, even among drivers themselves, Brown continued:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAndrea [Stella], our team principal, calls it poison biscuits because you are trying\u2026 and you see it with the drivers, right? They talk trash to each other, and that\u2019s all mental  to try and get in each other\u2019s heads and we do that at every level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brown, who through the years has developed into one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a>\u2019s most vocal characters, has not held back his thoughts on certain matters. In recent years, he was often locked in a war of words with former Red Bull team principal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/christian-horner\" title=\"Christian Horner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christian Horner<\/a> \u2013 one he also sometimes takes cheeky swipes at.Brown admits F1 misses HornerEarlier, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/mclaren-chief-makes-honest-admission-about-horner-in-recent-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brown admitted the F1 paddock misses the character of Horner<\/a>. The American acknowledged the former Red Bull team principal as an unbelievable team boss.Brown, in his words, however stressed he expects the 52-year-old to make a return to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a> in the near future.Catch up with GPBlog\u2019s latest Paddock Update<\/p>\n<p>As the commencement of the 2026 season draws nearer, our Paddock Update is the place to be.<\/p>\n<p>Follow and subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay up to date with all the happenings as they unfold, ahead of the first on-track action under the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/formula-1\" title=\"Formula 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Formula 1<\/a> regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of our Paddock Update here \ud83d\udc47<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren CEO Zak Brown has opened up on the mind games and tactics he employs in an effort&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[13273,64,63,1199,817,35119,813,816,913,946,85,9657],"class_list":{"0":"post-399074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-andrea-stella","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-christian-horner","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-f1-news","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-mclaren","17":"tag-red-bull-racing","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-zak-brown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399074","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=399074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}