They say that fortune favours the brave and our CEO Zak Brown has called upon the motorsport community to make tough choices as we work towards a more sustainable future.

Following the release of our second Sustainability Report, Zak Brown has penned his thoughts on what those difficult decisions are, the rule and regulatory changes that are required across motorsport, and the huge potential that a more collaborative grid holds.

A more sustainable future is a brighter future

As we mark our 60th anniversary this year and celebrate many proud achievements from the past six decades, we also want our team’s future legacy to be a positive driving force for securing a sustainable future for our sport, our communities and our planet.

None of us have all the answers to some of the very complex challenges we face, and although our sport is still at the beginning of our collective sustainability journey, we have come a very long way over the past three years and there is much to be proud of.

But now’s the time for bold decisions. We need a genuine step change or we risk losing important ground and stalling on our continued commitment to advancing sustainability as a strategic priority.

Maximising our global reach for the greater good

Our sport’s economic sustainability relies on getting this right. We need to continue to raise the bar to deliver impactful programmes other businesses and corporate partners want to be part of. Our growing global fan base rightfully expects us to demonstrate real leadership on the issues they deeply care about. And of course, we can’t fight for every tenth of a second if our supply chains are disrupted, if our people aren’t thriving, or if our teams lack the diversity and skillset needed to forge excellence.

The challenges are significant, but the truly global reach of our racing series – including our first year in Formula E and second year of Extreme E in 2023 – also provides us with an incredible opportunity to use our platforms to drive positive change. Our sport has an unrivalled ability to inspire collective action to help us address the environmental, social and economic challenges we face.

With innovation firmly baked into everything we do, our sport is also in a unique position to  meaningfully contribute to the development of clean and more sustainable technologies that can spark the positive changes needed on a global scale.

But to unlock this incredible potential, we need to find better ways to share expertise and insights across our industry. Only true collaboration will help us drive meaningful change. We rise and fall together. We each have to play our part, raise our standards, take accelerated action to reduce our negative impacts. And we need to support each other along the way.

Breaking down barriers

For this to happen at pace, now is the time to level the playing field so teams can work towards achieving the same targets and no longer have to choose between investing in car performance and investing in sustainability. It’s an impossible choice.

Our sport needs a clear regulatory framework with financial, technical and sporting regulations that better enable us all to innovate and invest in sustainability. And if we want to achieve a step change with the new set of 2026 regulations, then those decisions need to be made now.

What could that look like in practice? Technical regulations could actively encourage the adoption of more sustainable materials and processes to enable us to achieve our goal of developing a fully circular F1 car. We could introduce clear sustainability criteria to cover core requirements for the race calendars across our series, the paddock and motorhomes. Promoters and competition organisers could be required to meet certain sustainability standards.

Diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as training and team wellbeing initiatives could sit outside of the cost cap. Likewise, costs for intern and apprentice programmes could be excluded from the cost cap so we don’t limit our ability to provide pathways into motorsport and STEM careers to people from under-represented backgrounds.

We see huge potential in all these areas. We are excited about the opportunities this could offer to foster greater collaboration with other teams and galvanise team efforts and help us all deliver on our ambitions. From rights holders and regulators to teams, promoters, partners and fans – if we all find ways of coming together to work towards a common goal, I truly believe that we can tackle the challenges we face and future proof the sport we all love. And at McLaren Racing we will absolutely continue to play our part.

Forever forward,
Zak Brown

You can read our second Sustainability Report in full here.