That last word has been at the centre of everything McLaren has done under Brown, attracting fans and sponsors alike.
The F1 team has gradually risen up the scale during his tenure, from propping up the grid in the years from 2015-16 to fighting for best of the rest over the last few of seasons – doing so with some of the most engaging drivers on the grid – Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo. This has been in relative tandem with McLaren papaya gradually seeping into the rest of the motor sport world.
Subsequently, a huge number of new fans have become emotionally involved with the team through its social media output – particularly its behind-the-scenes YouTube series Unboxed – much of which is centred around Norris, with its equivalents in IndyCar and Extreme E.
McLaren looking beyond F1
This retro reboot on how to go racing all started with a joke made by Brown in 2017, not long after he had taken the reins at McLaren, which was then using Honda F1 engines.
The Californian quipped to Fernando Alonso about entering the 2017 Indy 500, in Brown’s words “he bit”. The resulting entry, with Andretti Autosport in a Honda-powered IndyCar, revealed the potential for McLaren to expand.
The most highly anticipated 500 entry in recent memory saw hundreds of thousands tune in just for the Spaniard’s IndyCar rookie orientation programme – a testing session which usually registers more than a mild flicker in motor sport’s consciousness.
Alonso qualified an incredible fifth, led for 27 laps, and was running near the front when his race ended prematurely in engine failure, but it was enough to set the tone for McLaren’s future involvement in categories outside F1.