McLaren CEO Zak Brown has spoken about how all teams in Formula 1 attempt to create tension amongst the ranks of rival outfits.

McLaren’s first title win in 26 years last season came in the same campaign that reigning World Champions Red Bull fell off the boil with a troublesome RB21 and off-track distractions.

Zak Brown: Generating instability at rivals can slow them down

Red Bull’s year was overshadowed by an off-track internal investigation by parent company Red Bull GmbH into allegations surrounding the behaviour of team boss Christian Horner.

While Horner was absolved following two separate investigations, he had admitted during the pre-season that the furore had been a “distraction” and, as the season progressed, Red Bull found themselves becoming increasingly uncompetitive as the RB20’s development path went awry.

While some stability was found towards year end as a step back on development was taken in order to find some balance, the dominance of Red Bull’s package had clearly ended – a situation that hasn’t changed over the winter as McLaren’s MCL39 now appears to be the fastest car on the grid.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown was one of the more outspoken critics of Horner during last year, and has since revealed there’s “no love lost” between the pair as he explained that their feud is “genuine”, while also hinting that Horner should “feel vulnerable” in his position as team boss following some high-profile departures from the Milton Keynes-based squad – some of which had joined McLaren.

Appearing on the TechStuff podcast, Brown was asked about the turmoil in which Red Bull found itself last year, and whether he had “smelled blood” in the knowledge of how a functional team could be thrown off by the storm.

“Our sport, perhaps more than others, has a highly competitive and political aspect,” he said.

“The goal is to make ourselves as fast as possible, but there’s also a strategy of destabilising the competition.

“We try to create tension or disrupt other teams, which isn’t unique to F1 but is particularly pronounced here.

“You’re constantly fighting for employees, drivers, sponsors, and media attention plays a big role. If you can generate some instability in rival teams – and it doesn’t always work in our favor – it can slow them down while we focus on speeding up.”

More on McLaren in F1

👉 Zak Brown car collection: The legendary machines owned by the McLaren boss

👉 Who is Andrea Stella? From Michael Schumacher’s engineer to McLaren team principal

Asked how much attention McLaren pays to its rivals, Brown said, “A decent amount but, at the end of the day, there’s not much you can do about it. So it’s more about observing and learning, but you can get obsessed with your competitors, and then you’re spending more time on them than yourselves.”

An example of the type of destabilising mind games that can be played was identified by Brown, who said that George Russell’s recent comments asserting that McLaren’s pace advantage is such that they could win every race in F1 2025 is a comment designed to apply pressure.

Speaking at the Chinese Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver said, “I think Red Bull’s advantage [in 2023] was maybe three or four-tenths. I think the advantage we’re seeing from McLaren right now is definitely bigger than that.

“I think their car is definitely capable of winning every race, and their car should win every race, but I don’t think they will win every race this year,” he said.

With Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff laughing about Russell’s comment, saying it was the type of comment designed to “rattle the cage”, Brown said he could see it for what it was.

“That’s part of the head games and the politics that go on, that’s a way to put pressure on the team,” he said, “kind of, ‘If you don’t win all 24, then you’ve done something wrong, and it’s a disaster’.

“So that’s nothing more than some of the stuff where people put pressure on people in different ways to try and destabilise them. So coming out with what appears to be a nice compliment is actually a way to apply pressure.”

Read Next: Yuki Tsunoda receives Perez and Gasly advice ahead of Red Bull debut