Jun.10 (GMM) McLaren CEO Zak Brown has moved to clarify the team’s position amid growing discussion about the disadvantages of being a customer team in Formula 1’s new engine era.
Team boss Andrea Stella suggested again during the Monaco weekend that customer teams face limitations compared to manufacturers when it comes to integrating and developing the new 2026 power units.
McLaren’s reliability struggles this season have only added to the scrutiny.
World champion Lando Norris has suffered a string of technical setbacks, while speculation continues that some of the team’s problems could be linked to the Mercedes-supplied power unit package that is powering the dominant factory team.
Brown, however, insists McLaren remains fully committed to Mercedes.
“I would first like to stress that I am very happy with Mercedes HPP (High Performance Powertrains),” he said.
“We’ve often heard that you can’t become world champion with a customer engine. We have proven that this is possible.”
McLaren won both titles in 2025 despite being a customer team and remains contracted to Mercedes until the end of 2030.
“Our first priority is to stay with Mercedes until new regulations come in, because they have been a great partner,” Brown said.
He added that the situation has improved significantly since the start of the season and “I expect that we will only get stronger in the near future”.
Brown did acknowledge that McLaren could eventually consider building its own engine if Formula 1 moves towards a simpler power unit formula in the future.
“Every time new regulations come up, we will study them and see if this is technically interesting and whether it would make fiscal sense,” he said.
“If that moment comes, we will go through that process, but at the moment we are very happy with Mercedes and we assume that we will continue with them.”
Brown admits he likes the direction Formula 1 appears to be heading.
“A V8, a larger combustion engine, sustainable fuels, less reliance on battery power, and more sound – that all sounds good,” he said.
“It seems like a good direction for the sport to me.”
The American also urged manufacturers to support efforts to improve the controversial new engine regulations. “We think that changes are still needed to improve these regulations,” Brown said.
“People need to park their personal agendas for a moment and not think about what makes them more competitive or less competitive and just all work together.
“I think there is a good consensus that changes are needed. It would be a shame if we didn’t keep improving our sport if we had the chance to do that.”
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