Zak Brown just made a ‘weird’ claim about McLaren’s 2025 dominance as they near constructors’ title

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McLaren could seal their second consecutive constructors’ championship at the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and CEO Zak Brown has had his say on his team’s continuing presence at the top of the standings in 2025.

The Woking-based outfit is on the precipice of winning back-to-back constructors’ championships for the first time since Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger’s feat in 1991.

McLaren will need to outscore Ferrari by at least nine points on the streets of Baku, whilst making sure that they aren’t beaten by Mercedes and Red Bull by 12 and 33 points, respectively.

The championship leaders have proved to be a tough team to beat in the current campaign, winning 12 of the 16 Grands Prix to have been held so far in 2025.

Oscar Piastri has had the upper hand over teammate Lando Norris for the majority of the season, tallying seven wins for himself to Norris’ five.

As a result, the Australian holds a 31-point lead in the drivers’ championship, which could be bolstered with a win in Azerbaijan.

READ MORE: F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: how to watch Baku race, schedule and weather as McLaren could clinch championship

Zak Brown thinks it’s ‘weird’ that McLaren has been claimed to be dominating the 2025 season

Since McLaren emerged as a contender for race wins in 2024, they built on their already solid foundation in 2025 to cement themselves as the team to beat for both titles.

F1 teams have been scrambling to replicate McLaren’s success, and it has been evident in the handful of wins that Max Verstappen and George Russell have taken away from them.

Speaking in a recent video celebrating Pirelli’s 500th Grand Prix as an F1 tyre supplier, Zak Brown touched upon the entertainment value of the sport, and how much it matters to have competition at the front of the grid.

The Motorsport executive also downplayed the dominance of McLaren, referencing the tight margins at the Monaco Grand Prix earlier in the year.

“Last year, we had seven different winners that won multiple races. You had the team that was leading the championship end up third,” Brown said.

“The team that was third at the time won, and so even though it’s weird, I know everyone’s saying we’re dominating this season, and clearly from a constructor’s points point of view, but every race has been a close call, right? 

“We won Monaco, but when you win it and you’ve got three cars that are covered by a second, I think that’s hard to say you dominated Monaco.”

The papaya-coloured team looked vulnerable to F1 rivals Red Bull at the most recent Italian Grand Prix, with Verstappen finishing nearly 20 seconds ahead of the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri.

McLaren are aware of the risk that Verstappen poses to the intra-team battle they have for the drivers’ title, and are concerned about the role that the Dutchman may play in deciding who will reign victorious.

READ MORE: The best Azerbaijan Grand Prix stats you should know as McLaren target impressive championship record

What was the most dominant season in Formula 1 history?

Verstappen’s 2023 championship-winning season is considered the most dominant single-season in the history of the sport. The Red Bull driver broke numerous records on his way to securing a third consecutive title as the rest of the grid failed to put up any sort of fight against him.

Red Bull mechanics remarked 2023 as being ‘too easy’ for Verstappen as he strolled to victory in 19 of the 22 races held that season. Resulting in a record win rate of 86%, the level of performance that the Dutchman showed throughout the season was unprecedented.

He also beat Sebastian Vettel’s previous record of nine consecutive wins, dropping a 10-race win streak on the heads of his rivals between the Miami and Monza rounds of the season.

If not for an uncharacteristic P5 in Singapore, he would have finished the season with 18 straight victories.

However, owing to the quick development environment of F1, Verstappen’s dominant RB19 would have struggled to make Q3 in a number of qualifying sessions throughout the following season.

He still went on to win a fourth consecutive title in 2024, but it was that season that cracks started to appear within the dominance of Red Bull’s set-up.