Zak Brown Predicts Red Bull's Financial Troubles Ahead
Jun.12 - McLaren, rather than Ferrari or Mercedes, could be shaping up as Red Bull's most serious challenger for world championship glory in 2024.
It is clear that Red Bull's long period of dominance is now over, with McLaren CEO Zak Brown also keen to pile on the pressure away from the actual track.
"There's still a pretty toxic environment there," he said when asked on a Bloomberg podcast about the reigning world champions. "And I think there's more to come."
Brown is being hailed for bringing stability and powerful sponsors to the resurgent McLaren team.
"The former team boss Andreas Seidl set the course for a promising future with state support from Bahrain, the sponsorship money that Zak Brown brought in and the (Lando) Norris-(Oscar) Piastri driver pairing," ex-McLaren legend Gerhard Berger told Bild am Sonntag.
And now Brown, a marketing and sponsorship specialist, is predicting money trouble ahead for Red Bull.
"Sponsors look at who they want to be associated with and what they stand for," he said. "So that is a difficult situation for them."
Brown also thinks Red Bull, having lost Adrian Newey, could lose Max Verstappen next, describing it as a "very unstable environment".
Berger, famously close to Red Bull's Austrian faction, thinks the troubles date back to founder Dietrich Mateschitz's late-2022 death, resulting in the collapse of a potential works F1 partnership with Porsche.
"That would have been a great fit in terms of marketing and would probably have happened if the always far-sighted Didi Mateschitz had not already been so ill at the time of the failure," he said.
"With Didi, there were lightning-fast decisions, short paths and a problem-free budget."
Even former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos tips the rising McLaren as Red Bull's toughest challenger going forward in 2024.
"At this rate, it is Lando Norris who will make it the most difficult for Max," he told Ziggo Sport, "because that McLaren is performing well on every type of track.
"I think Barcelona and Silverstone will be the real tests. Red Bull is going to Spain with a major upgrade package, so on that type of track they should be right there again.
"But if McLaren can keep up, we'll see a real championship."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Ferrari, Maclaren and Mercedes have all narrowed the gap dramatically without The great AN, nobody is indispensable and I doubt we will see a return of 21s Mad Max, he has grown up has nothing left to prove and has to many other people in his life to take those risks now thankfully.
Red Bull has won 8 of 11 races this season including the latest one in Canada. Although McLaren is currently looking good, to claim "It is clear that Red Bull's long period of dominance is now over" is wishful thinking unless what is meant is that instead of winning by 11 to 16 sec the margin of victory is now going to only be in the 2 to 10 sec range. The talent is applying way too much relevance to the showing in Monaco and what it means, just like last years showing in Singapore after that race they were saying "Stick a fork in em, they're done" and just like then they are full of it this year also.
Is the success already getting into Brown's head or what? McLaren won this season only one race by dumb luck, becasue the safety car was deployed to slow down Verstappen! Can't you see that?
Red Bull will show him next round in Spain with their update who is the boss...
Lando would've won the Miami GP even without the SC error, given he would've rejoined in P2 with the same tyre & overall pace advantage.
I'm not so sure about that JJ. Predicting the future is very difficult with so many variables... But he won, so it doesn't matter what we think.
Hopefully Spain will be less boring than usual next week.
I think Vassuer at Ferrari needs to concentrate on his team rather than talking about Red Bull can make mistakes under pressure.
Brown at McLaren needs to also concentrate on his team rather thsn still trying to stir up trouble by talking about the culture at Red Bull.
And Wolff also needs to concentrate on his team, with Hamilton making veiled insinuations that Russell is getting preferential treatment with driver tension.
Max has won 6 out of 9 races .
Ah Zak , your a good story teller( or a bad one) , but what he fails to say is with all Rbs motor sport activity WORLDWIDE they have maybe 100, 200 sponsors with deep enough pockets for F1, So for all the wishing (desperate hoping) I would say attracting financially big enough sponsors just wont be a problem for the f1 team.
I suspect Red Bull don’t actually need any sponsorship it just tops up the profits even more. The sponsors may even bring in more than the cans! Hence the Thais recognise the importance of one Christian Horner, Helmut and Joss are a couple of irrelevant narcissists who he can continue to ignore and Ralf is not even on the radar.
Zak Brown needs to be on reality TV. Fish Wives and Busy Bodies of F1. He would be grea!
Good grief Susan, where have you been?
Didn't you know that Zac Brown has a huge crystal ball that be was bequeathed by Nostradamus!
I forgot!