THIS IS ZAK BROWN
Zak Brown wanted to be a racing driver. The problem was, he had no money. As a teenager, he appeared on the TV gameshow Wheel of Fortune then sold the watches he won to fund enrolment at a karting school. A few years later he left his home in California and flew to the UK, to pursue the dream of so many young drivers. His first job in motorsport was washing cars at a Donington Park racing school while lodging on an air mattress at a mate’s house in Sheffield – a life Zak now describes as “torture.”
Brown realised he had a talent for finding sponsorship to keep his burgeoning career afloat, but eventually had to concede he lacked the speed to make it all the way to the top as a driver. Undaunted, the hard-working American returned home – surviving an earthquake that destroyed his house – and started to broker sponsorship deals on the US racing scene.
After building up a specialist motor racing agency, Just Marketing International, Brown eventually sold his company for more than £70million to a sports marketing group. While that helped fund a new life as a ‘gentleman’ driver in sportscars, Zak’s goal still remained Formula 1.
He continued to broker deals in grand prix racing and then came a choice: join Formula 1 as the ‘new Bernie’, or take control of McLaren. The racer in him chose the challenge of running a racing team with the remit to get them back to the front of the grid.
As the sun sets over the Abu Dhabi paddock, and the 2019 season draws to a close, Brown gives us a detailed account of how a Californian kid, who was always in trouble at school, became
