At present, Zak Brown isn’t completely ruling out the idea of McLaren developing its own Formula 1 engines
Zak Brown does not rule out the possibility of McLaren having its own engine in the future. “Whenever new regulations are on the horizon, we will look into it and see if it appeals to us from a technical standpoint,” explains the CEO of McLaren Racing.
“Does something like that make financial sense? I think we’ll look into it when the time comes.”
Nevertheless, Brown makes it clear: “At the moment, we are very happy with Mercedes and plan to continue working with them.”
When asked whether McLaren is not participating in the discussions regarding the new engine regulations, the CEO explains: “Well, we are not a manufacturer. So we don’t have a seat on the Power Unit Group. Now we can only wait and see what the regulations will look like in the end.“
”And if we find [the regulations] interesting, then we might take a look at them. But until then, you know as much about the future as we do. So I think it would just be a distraction right now to focus on anything other than the here and now and where we want to go in the future. “
V8 engines are currently on the agenda for 2030 or 2031. In Monaco, Audi CEO Gernot Döllner, among others, emphasized that despite its focus on sustainability, the automotive group would not oppose this idea. When asked what Brown thinks of the plans so far and what Mercedes has communicated about them, the CEO says:
“Ultimately, we have to turn to [Mercedes] for the technology. But everything we’ve heard so far from our president—about the V8, the larger combustion engine, the right fuel, a smaller battery, the hybrid aspect, or the sound—it all sounds good.”
“I don’t have much more technical understanding of it than that. But it sounds like it’s the right direction.”
Although McLaren, as a customer team, won both world championships in 2025, the team was far from enthusiastic about the current setup at the start of the year.
Ultimately, they felt they had a technical disadvantage in terms of energy management compared to the Mercedes works team. At the Indy 500, Brown had noted that under the right financial conditions, they would consider having their own engine.
Meanwhile, Mercedes is reportedly planning to supply only two customer teams under the upcoming engine formula. Currently, in addition to the works team, McLaren, Williams, and Alpine race with engines from Brixworth. Based on this rumor, Brown was asked about the topic in Monaco.
