How COVID gave Zak Brown crucial F1 budget cap bargaining chip

Elizabeth Blackstock 18 Aug 2025 5:00 PM

Zak Brown of McLaren on the pit wall in Canada

Zak Brown says that McLaren Racing has the cost cap to thank for its performance turnaround in Formula 1.

The sport’s leveling of the playing field after the COVID-19 pandemic enabled a team on the edge of bankruptcy to find its footing in a notoriously expensive sport.

Zak Brown: How the COVID-19 pandemic transformed McLaren

As the 2020s got underway, Formula 1 was at a choice point. Aware that many teams were unable to sustain the rabid spending that had characterized the introduction of the hybrid regulations, it was clear that a cost cap would be necessary to curb spending.

That spending cap would be critical for a team like McLaren, which was bordering on the edge of bankruptcy as the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to put both the team and its associated automotive brand out of business.

The papaya team had been whiling away in the rear of the F1 grid, unable to keep the pace with the likes of Mercedes as developmental budgets began to skyrocket into the hundreds of millions. If that pace continued, McLaren would go out of business.

More on Formula 1’s budget cap:

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But the start of the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the sport’s prospects, Zak Brown stated on an episode of the How Leaders Lead podcast.

“That was huge,” he said of the budget cap conversation, “and we were lucky on timing from a COVID point of view.

“Obviously COVID was a terrible thing, but it put the sport under an immense amount of pressure.”

But it had a surprising benefit for the likes of McLaren.

Brown continued, “And that was right when we were talking to the budget cap, which was actually going to be significantly higher.

“So we got a little bit lucky with the timing because it allowed me to push even harder to get the budget cap down.”

Formula 1’s initial cost cap limit was $175 million, but the global transformation wrought by COVID-19 forced the sport’s hand and, in 2021, the limit was proposed at $145 million.

That limit, too, was reduced in 2022, to $140 million, then again to $135 million in 2023.

For Brown, the benefits of the cost cap have been exceptional.

“Last year we had seven multiple winners,” he said. “First time I ever recall that amount of winners in Formula 1.”

“Four different teams that won races. The top three teams swapped the constructors championship late in the year. And that’s because now we’re all playing with the same size bat.”

Of course, Brown’s favorable opinion of the cap may also have a lot to do with McLaren Racing’s success in this more limited era. In 2024, the team saw a mid-season upgrade transform it into a championship contender overnight. And while Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing had amassed a chokehold on the drivers’ title, McLaren managed to snag the constructors’ title in the final race of the season.

McLaren