Read time: 13.4 minutes

Zak and Andrea have just joined Lando and Oscar for a lunch break, midway through McLaren’s annual Friends and Family Day, where each year, every team member gets to invite those closest to them to an open day at the factory.

It’s a chance for those who work at McLaren to show their partners, parents, siblings and their closest friends where they work. There are speeches from and photo opportunities with Zak, Andrea, Oscar and Lando, rare cars on display, a pit-stop challenge, racing simulators, and much more, but the main event is the McLaren Grand Prix.

“Did you give it some ‘vroom vroom’?” Andrea asks Lando as they sit down. Still in his race suit, Lando nods with a smile. He’s just driven the 1991 MP4/6 around the lake road at the McLaren Technology Centre, while Oscar was in the MCL60 and Zak behind the wheel of the 1984 MP4/2. After lunch, they’ll swap, with Oscar climbing into the MP4/6. All four agree it’s the best-sounding car.

But before they head back out, we’ve joined them for lunch for a discussion about the season so far and the final rounds.

We’re speaking from McLaren’s annual Friends and Family Day at the factory, where you’ve all had the chance to thank everyone for their contributions so far this season. What is the importance of days like this – open days, team celebrations, the debriefs we host after each Grand Prix – in achieving our aims and ambitions?

Andrea Stella: Our most important resource, the most important factor behind the team's success, is our people. From a leadership point of view, we need the opportunity to engage with our people and to deliver our direction and vision. In this respect, the debriefs we hold with the team after race events are a very important opportunity. The celebrations we do together, or the days like today, when we invite the families and friends who support our team, create a link.

They help to create an alliance between the 1,000 people who work at McLaren, so they know exactly which direction we are going in – the vision and the approach, which then allows them to unleash their talent. The debriefs, the celebrations, the friends and family open days, these are all very important opportunities that help to forge the bond that we are all in this together and that we can face any challenge.

Zak Brown: Absolutely. It’s all about our people and our culture.

Regarding the celebration aspect of that, how important is it to pause and take a moment to enjoy success before getting back to work?

Zak: It’s very important to celebrate with our team and the fans. The fans are an extended part of our family and our race team – and we’ve got millions of fans, so that’s a pretty big family. Their energy is awesome, we love celebrating with them.

Going back to the start of the year, when for the first time in 26 years, McLaren entered a Formula 1 season as the defending Champions. Did this change the dynamic inside of the team at all?

Andrea: For me, I enjoy it just the same because I don't think about these things - I just think about getting better and better every day… bettering myself, the team, the drivers, and the way we run the place. Ultimately, the results will take care of themselves. More important than anything is that we know what we're doing every day. We worry about the execution, but not the results, and that makes it possible for us to enjoy what we are doing every day.

Zak: Andrea and I have different personalities, which I think is what makes us such a strong team. Unlike Andrea, who has a great talent for being ‘business as usual’ every day, regardless of the situation, I carry more stress. I would say that Andrea is motivated by the thrill of victory, and I'm motivated by the fear of defeat. Both keep you highly motivated, but one comes with a little more stress than the other. I think it's a great combination. Going into this season as defending Champions, we needed to work hard to maintain that, because ultimately, if you aren’t successful in doing so, you are technically going backwards – that, for me, is stressful, but a big motivator.

And Oscar, Lando, in addition to being the defending Constructors’ Champions, you went into this season hoping to fight for the Drivers’ Championship for the first time in your careers. Has this required any form of adaptation?

Oscar Piastri: For the most part, I would say it’s been the same. Going into the season, if you look at the trajectory we’d taken and the progress we’ve made since the start of 2024, we felt that if we could start this season how we ended last season, then there was a good chance of us fighting for two Championships, not just the Constructors’. In that scenario, you know that there is going to be a lot to play for, so that aspect is different, but the way you go about trying to achieve your goals is the same – you just try and do the best that you can.

Lando Norris: Every year, you learn more and more, and you will always adapt your approach ever so slightly based on what you take away from your experiences. But at the end of the day, it’s pretty simple: you go into every weekend trying to get as many points as you can. What’s good for you, is normally good for the team, and what’s good for the team, is good for you – that makes it quite simple for us.

Zak, Andrea, in what ways have you seen these two step up this year?

Andrea: Lando and Oscar have continued their individual development process: they’re faster drivers with better race craft. They’re better at working with our performance engineers to capitalise on their opportunities. For example, they look at what happened at an event last year and try to understand how they can do better this year at the same event.

It’s true that we have improved our car this year, but they have made our car look even better than what it is – that is down to the talent and the quality of their driving and their ability to deliver us points. Ultimately, we are the Constructors’ World Champions because of the sum of the points Oscar and Lando have scored for us. What we have achieved is not only down to the car, but the significant added value from each of our two drivers.

Zak: The consequence of what Andrea has said is that the drivers have never driven better. They're getting the last millisecond out of each other, which is getting the last millisecond out of the team. The ultimate outcome of them raising their game to World Championship level is that it elevates everybody. The whole team is stronger.

Lando, Oscar, what elements of Zak and Andrea's leadership have helped you to perform at your best this year?

Lando: They both have experience working with a lot of different people. They’re also able to give very different perspectives – because of what their roles are and what they’ve experienced in their lives. There are always things to talk about, to learn from, to take on board. They set a good example of leadership for the whole team and a good example of how to work together as a team. There are always things to learn from them.

Oscar: It takes time to see the results that come from a change of leadership and a change of mentality, and I think what we’ve seen this year hasn’t actually been the result of a big change, and instead, what we’re seeing is the bearing of fruit from where we were a few years ago. Of course, there has been an evolution of certain things this year - we're constantly evolving as we find ourselves in new scenarios and new situations, and as we learn more about each other, but the core principles and ways of working haven’t really changed too much. I don't feel like there's been a massive difference or dramatic change, and I think that’s a good thing because the path we were on has been proven to be the right one. We’ve needed to tweak and adjust things, but the core ways of working are clearly working.

We’re nearing the end of the 2025 season. What are the aims for those final four rounds?

Zak: To win every race.

Andrea: Exactly, and that would give us P1 and P2 in the Drivers' Championship, which is what we want.

Sport doesn’t stand still, especially one such as Formula 1, which is constantly evolving. What are you doing to ensure we remain at the front of the grid, not just in the final races of this season, but going into next year?

Andrea: I think Oscar said it well earlier, when he spoke about constant evolution, and that’s what I want to refer to. In Formula 1, if you think you can relax, rest, or slow down because things are working well, then you are going to have big surprises in the future. You need to keep evolving, you need to keep finding ways to progress – you need to change for the better.

Zak: We stay focused on ourselves, and we don't pay attention to external noise.

And the last thing I would like to add is that we’ve won the four races I wanted us to win this year. We wanted to win in Bahrain for our big boss, we wanted to win in Monaco for the Triple Crown – and because it’s Monaco – and we wanted to win Australia and Silverstone because they’re our driver’s home races. If you had asked me at the beginning of the year, which are the four races you want to win, those are the four I would have said.

Andrea: If you had asked me at the start of the season, I would've said São Paulo, Las Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi…

Andrea’s closing quote, while said in jest, does, in fact, get to the heart of the team’s success so far. The constant desire to better, to improve, to achieve more is never-ending.

“For me, we haven't achieved anything yet this year,” Andrea concludes.