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Dear McLaren fans,

As we get set to go racing again, we’ll inevitably spend the next few months looking forward, as we have big ambitions for the second half of the year. There will be more on that later in this letter, but firstly, I want to take some time to reflect on what we’ve achieved so far on track and what a mega team we’ve built here at McLaren.

Our talented race drivers are rightly the stars of the show, but behind them is a vast team of people who allow us to execute our goals both on and off track, some of whom I’d like to mention here.

Formula 1

I’ve been saying it all year, but I think we have the best driver line-up, Team Principal, and team on the Formula 1 grid. We have had a very promising start to the season, which has confirmed the positive trajectory we established last year, and now, we must continue to perform at the highest level. My role as CEO is now, more than ever, to ensure that our people have what they need to maintain this, supported by my Chief of Staff Chloe Todd, who is key to coordinating a lot of that work.

We do that by creating a performance-led work culture. Formula 1 is a high-pressure working environment that requires motivation and dedication. As we pursue our target of becoming the best racing team in the world, Chief People Officer Daniel Gallo and his team have facilitated the bringing together of an incredibly talented group of people. The combination of new talent and the creation of an environment that gets the best out of an already strong team is now being seen on track.

Performance comes from the talent in our team and efficiency in how we work - in how we deploy our time and spend our budget. That means making the right decisions on what areas and projects we focus on, but I believe we have what we need to be successful now and in the future. Our new wind tunnel and next-generation simulator are up and running, our new composites facility is in full working action, and the McLaren Technology Centre continues to be a world-class facility with an ongoing series of upgrades that provide the team with all the required tools and infrastructure. Our Team Principal, drivers, executives, and I have all committed to McLaren long-term, and that is proof that we strongly believe in what we’re doing.

This has been achieved thanks to the synergy of all departments, under the guidance of our Chief Financial Officer Laura Bowden and her team, whose tireless work ensures we continue to thrive in this cost-cap era, which requires us to make every penny count.

For the first time since 2012, we went into the summer break with a Grand Prix race win for both of our drivers. Seeing Lando and Oscar claim their first victories was absolutely epic, and let’s not forget that Oscar’s win in Hungary was a one-two for the team. It’s the first time since 2002 that two drivers from the same team have won their first races in the same season, and that’s quite an achievement. It’s been awesome. Things haven’t always gone entirely smoothly, but that’s racing. The important thing is that we’ve learned from any possible opportunities, while always retaining a positive, collaborative, and constructive mindset.

All of this has taken place under Andrea Stella’s leadership.

I had a colleague come up to me the other day and say that in their 40 years of working for McLaren, never has the environment been so good. The energy that we’re getting from the entire team has been amazing.  

Andrea’s collaborative approach is key to our success, which has been achieved with the help of our incredible team. It is a collective effort from our entire organisation, including our owners, our board members, our great partners, our people, and our committed fans. Every single one of them contributes to performance. Without them all, we wouldn’t be able to go racing.

Our Commercial team have been smashing it this year. Thanks to the work of Co-Chief Commercial Officer (Business Development) Nick Martin and his team, we’ve had some of the world’s biggest and best brands, most recently Mastercard, join us on our journey this year, because they believe in the work we’re doing. They add to what I already believed was the strongest portfolio of partners on the grid, which is expertly managed by Co-Chief Commercial Officer (Partnerships) Matt Dennington and his team.

It's thanks to our Commercial team that we’re able to deliver market-leading campaigns. A personal highlight for me was at the Monaco Grand Prix when we ran our beautiful one-off Ayrton Senna-inspired livery. This wouldn’t have been possible without our Chief Marketing Officer Louise McEwen and her team. They delivered a fitting tribute to a brilliant man, whose impact on not only McLaren but Formula 1 continues to be felt to this day, 30 years on from his passing.

It is because of campaigns such as this one, and our very popular drivers, that we were recently voted by fans as the most popular team on the grid in The Race’s inaugural Fan Census, with an incredible 28% of the vote. This also certainly wouldn’t have been achieved without our talented Communications team - led by Chief Communications Officer Steve Atkins - who expertly bring McLaren stories to life, and to you, our fans.

It was important that we used this summer break to recharge our batteries because things are only going to become a lot more intense as we get to the crunch time of the season. We’re now ready to come back strongly and hit it hard with 10 races to go.

We’ve come a very long way in a very short space of time. I remember how much effort it took to secure our first trophy on this journey back at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2019 with Carlos Sainz – and how much this was celebrated - and now we’re doing it on a regular basis. It’s incredible.

Around me, I see an incredibly motivated and passionate team, fuelled not only by fighting for podiums every week, but also fuelled by wanting to be better every race. We’re P2 in the Constructors’ World Championship and excited to be in the quest to win it, with two drivers both pushing hard in the Drivers’ World Championship.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

We’ve got a lot to be proud of across all of our series, it isn’t only in Formula 1. On the IndyCar front, Pato O’Ward has won two races this year in St. Pete, and in Mid-Ohio, where he was absolutely awesome. Then, in the Indy 500, we were once again the strongest team in the field and came pretty darn close to winning it. Alexander Rossi and Callum Ilott both put on great performances for the team, and it was also fantastic to partner up with Rick Hendrick and run Kyle Larson for his attempt at The Double.

I am excited for the future of Arrow McLaren. Since taking over as Team Principal in October 2023, Gavin Ward has demonstrated his grit and determination to get us fighting at the front. Of course, success doesn’t come overnight, but his leadership team have really grown into their roles. Now that we’ve got a stable driver line-up in place, I think he and his team can really kick on and challenge for wins on a regular basis.

We look forward to welcoming Christian Lundgaard - an NTT INDYCAR SERIES winner at only 22 years old - into the team for 2025. He raced in Formula 2 and Formula 3 with Oscar, who has said that he is unbelievably quick. He’ll line up alongside Pato - who we know is supremely talented - and another exciting young talent in Nolan Siegel, who we think has a huge future in the sport. We watched Nolan win the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 class at only 19 years old, and we’re delighted that he’s joined our team.

We’re trying to win titles, and we want the best drivers in the world. We think that these three will continue to grow and develop with this team to become that.

Electric Racing

On the Electric Racing front, in Formula E, while seventh place in the Constructors’ World Championship is clearly not where we want to be, we won in São Paulo and took a podium in China, and those are pretty cool achievements, which we should be proud of. I’ve seen a lot of growth off-track, led by NEOM McLaren Electric Racing Managing Director and Team Principal Ian James, and this will put us in good stead moving forward. Ian has been putting the building blocks in place for our long-term future and with us now entering the new GEN3 Evo era, I believe we’ll see our progress off-track reflected on the track.

I think Sam Bird has come in and done an awesome job - his dramatic late pass to win in Brazil was fantastic. Jake Hughes once again proved how strong a driver he is as well, particularly in Qualifying, and although he’s now left our team, he’s served us well and played a major role in establishing us in this series. Ultimately, we started strongly this year and faded a bit, but we will learn from that and work to get that course corrected.

We’ve had two Extreme E races this season, and we got a podium in the first round. Since taking over as the NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team Sporting Director, Gary Paffett has done a great job in building on our early successes in Extreme E, and I think you’re now seeing a team who are capable of taking that next step. Our two drivers, Cristina Gutiérrez and Mattias Ekström, have already shown what a great pairing they are.

The McLaren Driver Development programme

Finally, I have been incredibly pleased to see our growing Driver Development programme continuing to thrive, led astutely by Stephanie Carlin. Our involvement in F1 Academy has already yielded a podium in Miami thanks to Bianca Bustamante, and she continues to go strongly in fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship. It’s also been exciting to see Gabriel Bortoleto develop as a driver with us as he chases the title in Formula 2. Alongside that, we’ve added exciting talents Alex Dunne, Martinius Stenshorne and Dries Van Langendonck to our roster, who join Ryō Hirakawa, Pato O’Ward and Ugo Ugochukwu.

I genuinely believe in the team we’ve built at McLaren and am excited by what the future holds. We’re continuing to invest in our people, and we’re continuing to learn from each and every race. For me, I think this is only the start, we’re just going to keep getting better. Are we perfect? No. Are we still learning every day? Absolutely. Is there more to come from us? 100%.

So, it’s time to go racing again. We’re going to come back and hit it hard. No one’s going to make it easy for us, we’ve had seven different winners in Formula 1 so far in 2024 - that also hasn’t happened since 2012 - but let’s keep doing what we’re doing because it’s working. Thank you all for your support, Papaya Army. It’s all the more important now as we push until the end of the season for both the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships.

See you back on track,

Zak