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Welcome back to the Deal.
I'm your host, Jason Kelly, alongside my partner Alex Rodriguez. We are coming to you from Beverly Hills, the Milkon Global Conference.
Alex, what a scene.
You sound very fancy with Beverly Hills, and it is a scene. I've been coming here for about ten years and this is by far, I think the most productive, but the busiest, because there's a lot going on in the world right now.
Is trying to raise capital.
The world is trying to raise capital, and I think the world is wrestling with an economy that is far from certain. I would say it is uncertain. I would say it is turbulent. We hear that all the time.
For people.
They're talking about tariffs, they're talking about global trade, they're talking about this administration, lots of geopolitics, lots of finance, stock markets, et cetera. But they're also talking a ton about sports. You are on an incredible panel. I mean talk about star Studed tell Us who was on this roster.
It was really incredible. It was Sam Kennedy, CEO Fenway Sports, the Great Willow Bay, your buddy Jason Wright was very impressive, Rich Paul from Clutch Sports, and myself, And it was an hour, but I could have been there for three hours because I really enjoyed what everybody else was saying, and it's such an interesting point. We had a great jam packed audience and we had a great time.
Yeah, it was really something to sort of see that collection of people. Jason Wright, of course ran the Washington Commanders. Now has gone to work with Mellie Hobson. She will be on an upcoming episode of the Deal in just a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for that. She talks all about how her new funded aerial has come together.
I got to do it.
I have to say a very cool like check the box the bucket List interview yesterday.
And I got to say, you were absolutely amazing. You did your best work and you were with really two titans. Then you studied, you've ran them by and I don't know how you get these people, but you're good.
Jason, Well, thank you. I really appreciate that. It's really fun.
Henry Cravits and George Roberts, who do very very little together in public, the founders of KKR, came together on stage. It was a packed house in the International Ballroom, same stage where they do the Golden Globes. I felt about as much pressure as if I was going for a Golden globe to deliver. With those guys, it was super fun. They talked a lot about their relationship, They talked about the markets, They talked about throwing off the tag of
being barbarians, which was fascinating. So it was a lot of fun. The last two days have been crazy, but the days before that were even crazier because we were both in Miami. Were recorded a couple episodes, one with Susie Wolf, who's coming up later on the season, and she was in town for Formula One the Miami GP. It has become an unbelievable scene in your hometown.
You can make an argument that Miami is one of the hottest cities in the world, and this has become the biggest of the best, and Formula One it used to to come compare to the Super Bowl and our Baso and so many different events. But this thing has taken over the city in a way I've never seen before. And you were there, which I was there.
So I went out on Saturday as a guest of tom Garfinkel, who has been a guest on the show. He of course works closely with Stephen Ross. He's the primary architect of bringing F one to Miami. He put together an incredible collection of people who were watching this race. It was an absolute who's who of finance, sports and entertainment. And they are there because they have to be, they
need to be. All of their peers are there and what we got to witness was something pretty incredible and it was all due to the guest on this week's show, Zach Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing. One two finish on the podium for McLaren. They are leading the standings. This is a guy you and I have both gotten to know, and we got to catch up with him.
We had a great conversation.
Zach Brown, no college degree, no high school degree, and really one of the best leaders, not only in America but around the world. And he's one of the most impressive And I think our audience is really going to enjoy that podcast.
Yeah, it's a really good interview and a good conversation. I think in part because what we learn from Zach is really some key business lessons. He's got an incredible management challenge on his hand that he goes right into, which is he has two superstars battling for a championship. This is a team sport to a point because both of these guys want to win, and they've each won already this year. Talked about Oscar Piastre and Lando Norris
and how this season ends. It's going to be good, we think, but it's a tricky thing for Zach Brown. He gets into it. So let's get into it with Zach Brown right here on the Deal. Welcome back to the Deal. I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Rodriguez. So excited today to have Zach Brown McLaren racing here with me in studio.
Great to have you here.
Good to be here, good to see everyone.
All Right, So you are in the midst of such an interesting industry, but really one of the most interesting and exciting teams in this sport in Formula One. Specifically, talk to us about this past year and what it's felt like you win the Constructors Championship, A real turnaround from where this team was when you took over.
What was the key decision.
People is kind of the best way to summarize it, but there's obviously a lot that goes into that. When I started in twenty seventeen, we had our worst year in the history of McLaren. We were ninth in the championship. We had none of these beautiful logos. Ninth out of ten, nine out of ten. That's not very good. It's terrible. A matter of fact, morale was down huge brand. But you know, kind of like the Yankees, they expect you to win, and if you're not winning, the booze are
kind of louder. Then if you're a team no one cares about, which is both a blessing in some sense but also a challenge in another. It was just not a great place, and so I started by trying to fix the leadership team right everything kind of the buck starts at the at the top. Got the right people in place, got everyone row in the same direction, playing as a as a as a team, because this is
you know, McLaren racing. Fourteen hundred people, about a thousand of those are on the Formula one team, and getting everyone building trust, belief, backing each other up. And now nine years later we're won our first World championship in twenty six years, which is kind of crazy because when I grew up watching McLaren they kind of won everything all the all the time, and we fell far from
behind that. But people, of course, we invested in technology, we got great sponsors involved, all those things came together. Two awesome drivers, which I'm sure we'll talk about here. Yeah, because having two some drivers isn't without its challenges at times. But it's been a great, great journey and now we're at the top. Now. The tricky part is managing all the expectations and trying to stay at the top because in sport you don't stay on top forever, so enjoy it why you can.
And so when you think about where this sport has come, especially in the United States where we are now, obviously the drive to survive effect everything that's happening three Grand Prix here in the United States. What needs to happen next to sort of, you know, as we say in the investment business, is you know, sort of consolidate the games and keep growing.
What needs to happen.
Well, I think it's kind of that in the sense of what we're doing is working. So let's keep kind of incrementally improving, but let's not change the game because we as a sport, we're winning. I think we have
twenty four races. Now we have demand for more. We can't do more in a year, So I'm a fan of let's go to twenty five fixed Grand Prix and go to eight Grand Prix that rotate every other year, so you can get some geographic expansion, but not on an annual basis, because we just these twenty four races around the world. We just we can't do twenty five. But at the same time, you don't want to kind of not grow. I think if I look at North America, our TV ratings, if you compare it to the big leagues,
here a lot of room for growth. I don't think we need more than three Grand Prix here. I think we could have more than three Grand Prix, but that would come at the expense of getting into India or South Africa, Korea or some of the other areas I think we need to expand into. Sponsorship is unbelievable. New brands coming in, you know every day, the Googles, the gold Men's, these companies weren't involved in Formula one historically, so it's very healthy we have. The franchise value is
finally caught on. If you look at these MLB or NBA or NFL teams, Formula one teams, are you know, as a franchise owner, are all healthy. So let's keep doing what we're doing, but let's keep making incremental gains. You know, the Netflix was amazing for our sport. I think the Brad Pitt movie coming out in June will be awesome. I think that will turn a lot more people onto the sport. And if you look at where the sport needed to grow from pre Liberty acquiring it,
we didn't have the diversity that we needed. We didn't have the youth that we needed. We didn't have North America. You know, arguably if not the most important sports and commercial marketplace. We didn't have as many women. And now you look at the audience. You know, I just got stopped coming in here and it's my women, and it's youth, and it's diversity. It's North America, you know in New York.
You know, kind of one of my favorite funny stories as I was staying at a hotel here when Netflix came out, and I pull up to the hotel and there's these two buses and fans everywhere. You know, it's either there's a baseball team or football team. And I come in and I go upstairs. Sure, I'm gonna go
down to dinner. And I get in the elevator two guys seven foot three, So it's like, okay, yeah, basketball team, but I don't follow basketball closely, so I made a funny joke to the guys, Hey, here for the tennis, and they kind of laughed to get with that. You're probably thinking, who is this guy, Let's beat him up, but they're super nice. Get out of the elevator. Lakers everywhere, all right, it's the it's the Lakers. And they're going to the bus and they won't sign for the fans
because they got to get to the bus. But they're very friendly. Yes, sorry, you got to get to the bus. And I'm walking out with them for the front door, and these three fans popped out from this group. They go, can we get your autograph? And they're like, sorry, we're not signing. No, no, not you, mister Brown love Formula one And these two guys looked at me like, who
the hell is this guy? And I mean, that was New York, right, and New York was the last place in the world that was a Formula one city up until a few years ago. So it's been awesome for the sport. So I think we need to keep exposing people to our sport. And I think that's what Netflix did is they showed us what goes on behind the scenes.
Yeah, so Zach from the outside as Americans and I'm probably the minority in this now because your game has grown so much.
Your sport, but it's.
Quite intimidating from afar right until you get to know, like Drive for Survive and you start getting into it a little bit. I've been to a few races and it's really really exciting. It's a great product. I remember seeing you and your team in Vegas and it was awesome. But what is the business model? How do you make money? What are your largest revenue streams? What are your largest fixed costs? Explain that for our listeners a little bit high level.
Yeah, absolutely, So our revenue streams are pretty simple. The strong majority is commercial sponsorship. Our revenues this year will be over six hundred million pounds, which is a record for US, and I believe in in Formula one that's
probably three quarters of our revenue. Then you get effectively prize money from Formula one and we get paid this year on last year's results, and then the teams get the majority, not enough of the majority from the league and then that's distributed based on how you finished and some historical prize money if you'd like, So we get paid that in arrears that goes up or down depending
on the revenue. Formula one generates Formula ones generating the revenue from broadcast money, sponsorship and promoter fees to put on the events and the promoters keeping the gate the grandstand sales. Then of course there's license merchandise. So we really only kind of have three main revenue streams sponsorship, Formula one, moneies and then the licensing revenues. And then we have a cost cap, which is what's driven the competitiveness in the sport and also so until since Liberty
got involved, and that's that's been a game changer. Last year we had seven different winners, four different teams that won multiple races. Never in the history since I followed the sport have we had that level of competitiveness. And the problem that we had is before there was a cost gap, you could spend as much as you could afford to lose. That was kind of the name of
the game. And when you had a big OEM coming in who could afford to spend a lot, big manufacturer, but it was great value for them because of the exposure. They could just outspend you. And then you get a discrepancy on the playing field because, especially in our sport or so dependent upon technology, if you can outstand you just buy better technology, not just better engineers and more engineers.
Better engineers, more engineers, and so that's now been capped, and that's given everybody a chance to be competitive, and the whole grid is now covered by two percent, so there's not much between the best and the worst. So the sport's really healthy as an on track product.
All Right, we're getting into what everybody wants to hear, which is you have a champagne problem, which is you alluded to it at the top of the conversation. You have two awesome drivers. You won the Constructors' Championship, which is the team championship last year. I have the benefit of co hosting this show with the superstar who has some experience being one of a couple superstars on a team and now is in a position where he has to manage superstars, So we want to chop it up
on this with you. Alex has some advice, but I'll ask you, what is the macro approach for you to managing Landa Norris and Oscar Piastri, who are by all accounts battling it out for the championship.
Yeah. Absolutely, And I do want to hear what Alex has to say, because especially when you join the Yankees, you know there was a couple guys playing the same position and I'm curious how that kind of played out. But for us, it's about transparency, communication, fairness, and we're going to get it wrong, but let's trust each other. If we get it wrong, it's not going to be because we tried to get it wrong or we were up.
So you know, when we come into a race weekend, we sit down with boat drivers on Thursday, here's the game plan, here's on what car. Because sometimes you do get into a situation where you're trying to get upgrades to the track so quickly. Sometimes you can't have and these are small upgrades both cars with the same stuff. So what you don't want to do is not tell one driver and when you do, hey, this guy's getting the upgrades. This weekend, here's why, or you got them
last time. You kind of keep score. Then on Sunday after qualifying, so we know what the grid looks like, we talk and we talk about strategy. Hey, he might be on a harder tire softer tire. That might mean this might happen in the race. And so you just open transparent fair and then give everyone the benefit of
the doubt. And I'm also a big fan of if something goes wrong, unless you can fix it right then and there, let's just talk about it on Monday because in sport, the adrenalins go in, the passions going, and you can say some stuff that you don't mean, but you've said it. And even though you can say sorry on Monday morning, you've said it. So kind of leave the helmets on and don't let the media because the media love a good a good fight.
This is the story of the season.
And it's and and everyone's kind of waiting for it to happen. And what we're saying is, hey, it's gonna happen. It's not if it's gonna happen, it's when it's gonna happen. But you know what, drivers make mistakes, You can have two guys racing as hard as they are twenty four races, someone's gonna get it wrong or driving it. It's not gonna be intent. It's going to be good, hard racing, and you know what, it's a mistake. Mistakes happened, So
keep your helmet on. Don't take the bait, because I've seen in our IndyCar team we had two drivers that were battling it out last year and one of our drivers gave a great interview and then at the end gave a little bit of a sound bite, which was okay, But then I saw the media go to the other driver and they went, hey, your teammate just said this, which was the sound bite. That's not what he said. Luckily, because our drivers are good guys. And I think kind
of coming back Alex, do we say interviewing people. I don't think all drivers will play this way, but our drivers will play this way because of the relationship we have. And it's like, don't take the bait. And the driver didn't take the bait because of Hattie, then they would have gone back to the other driver did and then you know, next thing, you know, you have a war of words, and actually it was just been instigated. So
we're ready for it. We're quite relaxed about it, and we've even said, you know what, we can't wait till that happens because we think it's going to be a non event. One's gonna be a bit disappointed and then can we just move on and get.
Back to racist right?
Right?
All right?
So Alex, come on in here, because you you've been on the other side of this. You know, you show up in New York. I mean, I'll name the names. You show up in New York. You're considered one of the best shortstops you know, who's ever played the game. And as Zach said, somebody's playing that position.
His name is Derek Jeter.
He's really good at me he's too.
Yeah, he's pretty damn good.
So what was it like? I mean, like, what is it like?
Because you were I don't know, people can make their own decisions. You were either Lando or Oscar in this case, but like, what was it like from your perspective?
Well, I think it was a perfect storm, just like Zach, like what you're managing today, right, and you have the enormous brands that's similar, right, you have you're McLaren brand. We have the New York Yankees, you have two stars in their primes, you have a blue chip, legendary owner, right, George Steinberner. That's the role you're playing, and that's a great that's pretty good. George was the best. And mister Steinberner,
he set the boundaries from day one. He said, Alex, if you want to be a Yankee, I can make that happen. But let's be clear. You're going to be a third baseman. And I said to mister Steinberner on a phone call, it was about a seven minute phone call. I said, I'll do one better for you. If you ever played me to short, I'll ask for a trade. That's the deal. I'm the third baseman. Derek's a shortstop.
And Derek and I have had great conversations about this, you know, twenty years later on how much he respected that. There was ever one rumor about me wanting to play short. And I think Zach for me, I got it wrong the first four years because I always wanted to justify I was a little bit too chatty for New York and coming from Seattle in Texas much smaller markets, you could be chatty and you wouldn't get you know, penalized.
So finally, after four years of a lot of pain and mistakes on my part and O nine, it all came together. We kind of put the name of the the brand and not the names of our last names at the very front, and we won a title. And when you win, we all win. And I think one of the lessons that I learned is learn and keep the door shut, because to your point, if you leave it open, the media is going to run with it.
So be very absolute, be very black and white, and don't justify anything because the media is not your friend. They're looking for reality TV. And the first four years I gave them that, and then after that it was much better.
You hit the nail on the head there with kind of don't give them too much because the more you talk, the more likely you are to say something by accident. And so actually I think less is more when you're the profile now that Lando and Oscar and McLaren or Steinbrenner and Jeter and a Rod like, you want to talk because you actually just want to kind of explain things.
You know, it's an innocent delivery, but they're waiting for that. Ooh, I can use that sound bite right there, and then then you kind of get pissed off, don't you when you read it? And then I think you do have to kind of learn by your mistakes. I've done the same thing, you know, myself over the years many times, and you know what, I'm going to do it again. I'm just gonna hopefully try and do it less frequently.
Yeah, and I'm you know, my fall up, Zach is I mean, this is I think unique to motorsport. You know that you would have this situation, and so I do wonder as a CEO making business decisions around this, this is this is the card cards you've been dealt, you know. I think those of us who you know, like the business of Formula one, certainly liberty media would probably say, yeah, this is a feature, not a bug, you know, like you're welcome. So how do you how
do you approach it as someone running this business? Are there different decisions you make around sponsorship, around you know, appearances, like what what do you do to sort of I guess maximize this this moment?
Yeah, I think it's it's interesting. What's never really been done before that I can remember, is two drivers competing for the World champion ship in the same team, right and it not ending in tiers. That's the reality. Andrea Stella, who's our team principal, who's responsible for the performance of the Formal one team, does an amazing job. And PK Mansel Tiers, Rosberg, Hamilton Tiars Cena prost Tiers like I
can't remember the last time there weren't tiers. But we're gonna we're gonna be different and we're we're on it. And I think I'm a believer in you know, right now we're on on top, but I don't want us to act too much differently because I also recognize there will be It's not if, it's it's when now. I hope when we're not on top, we're a second or third,
not not ninth. I'd like to think we're on top of things now, but I also don't ever want to, like with our our sponsor partners, be like we're the hottest team and foremore on right now and we're gonna charge a premium, because the first thing's gonna happen is the minute we're not the hottest team in Formula One,
there we go like, well wait a minute. So I want to be kind of consistent I don't want us to change our personality if you'd like and be like, you know, we're the big guys on the block now, and have some humility about what we're doing, and keep our feet on the ground. It wasn't that long ago we were ninth in the championship. Enjoy the moment, bring everyone along the for the journey. I mean, one of the reasons why you know this orange that we call
Papaya is our team. I thought was dark and exclusive when I joined, and I wanted us to be warm and inclusive, and a lot of that is our drivers and I just I remember the first race I went to. I was ten years old, Long Beach Grand Prix, nineteen eighty one. You guys all have the same experience in various sports. The impression it made on me, I remember
it like it was yesterday. I remember the first racing driver that I met, I got his autograph, And I also remember over the years, every athlete I've met that wasn't so nice. And so I want to make sure we're nice guys one hundred percent of the time. You know, to stop for ninety eight percent of the fans, that's not good enough. And we're fortunate. The drivers we have are great guys. I've never seen them not stop for
sign a photo or take take a picture. Because at the end of the day, we're in the sport and entertainment business, and some of the people in our sport go, well, it's not entertainment. I was like, well, wait a minute, it's my time off. I'm buying a ticket to go watch something, or I'm sitting on my couch and watch it. How's that not entertaining very definition of it. It's totally so we need to be entertaining for our fans and not lose sight of the fact that all of our
number one customer is the fan. Without a fan, we don't have countries that want to hold races without fans, we don't have sponsors. So when you see some of the drivers in Formula one kind of not appreciate the fans, how did they think they get paid it the end of the day. And so I think it's just very important for us all to be fan focused. And so the more I can expose the fan base to McLaren and our cool drivers, and the better off we are. And it feels good. I remember the the you know,
the impressions. It's left on me.
Yeah, so Jason mentioned Zach early. He alluded to how busy you are, and you're one of the busiest guys in the world, but yet you're traveling the world. You're doing a great job managing your defending championship team. You answer emails like in seconds, and you're hit me on what's pp at all hours of the night. I do the same thing right back to you. What does a typical Monday Tuesday look like for Zach Brown?
They're all flat out? Is probably the only common aspect. I've always believed I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but if I can be the hardest working guy in the room, that I can get a little bit of a head start. And I love what I do. It doesn't feel like a job, right, I mean, you're playing baseball for the Yankees. I mean, okay, I know it's a job, but you know what, I love that job and I'm going racing for a living. You know, it wasn't long ago I was playing with little hot wheels cars.
I kind of I'm just playing with the bigger versions now and so I love it. And it doesn't mean I mean it's unbelievably hard. There's a immense amount of pressure. It's not easy, it's not always fun, but ninety five percent of the time it's great, and so I get up every day and every day is kind of a new adventure. I think. My view is I work for the race team. The racing team doesn't work for me. So my job as manager, if you'd like, is how do I get the best out of all the players
on the field in the factory? What do you need? Do you need direction, do you need more resources, do you need more employees? Whatever it may be. So I'm constantly going to trying to figure out what does everybody need? What are my sponsors need? How can I deliver on that? So I'm constantly trying to give everyone in our ecosystem what they need to get the most out of their time at McLaren. And you know, two hundred and seventy nights a year on the road, so travel like a lunatic.
I'm at the racetrack. I raced four or five times a year. I raced this past weekend, so probably not healthy that on my weekend off from being at the racetrack, I went back to the racetrack and I love it.
You know, I got a chance to drive, actually sit in the back for a race. We did one lap. It was the scariest thing I've ever done in my life. I thought I was dead. I did forte in hell. Mary's a lot of prayers in baseball. Wish you could have a camera just like you could for the drivers, so people at home can say, how are they even? You can't even see the ball when it's coming in one hundred miles an hour.
It's you know, I've been and I'm sure you've done the same. Alex play professional with a professional golfer, Yeah, sit courd side in an NBA. The professionals are just at a level that until you kind of see it, you go, you know, when I'm golfing, I'm like, I'm trying to go that way. Yeah, when you're playing with Justin Rose or Rory and been fortunate to play, I'm trying to go that way. But land it there put some backspin on it because I and it's like, yeah,
what is going? And they just professionals in sports see the game, play the game unlike a way you can really appreciate it until you're close up and then it's just like, wow.
Yeah, So it's interesting Zach.
You know you alluded to this with with your great story about you know, being in an elevator and sort of seeing what Formula one became. I do wonder for you what it's been like in how you've managed essentially, and again I may pose this question my co hosts as well, like becoming really famous. I mean you walk through the Bloomberg and people are asking for selfies. I've
seen this happen with other team principles. You know, there aren't a lot of team principles and CEOs who get stopped for selfies, but like you and Toto and Gunther when he was a team principal at Gunther Steiner all gets up, what was that transition like for you? How do you manage it and still sort of maintain your sort of job and your management responsibilities.
Well, it's part of the job, yeah, because you know, the fans they can't control when they bump into you, and the fans are ninety nine out of one hundred times really gracious, really nice, other than maybe when they get ahold of you on social media. That kind of challenges that goes kind of more to one out of one hundred. But putting that aside, Alex is for people
who are just listening and they're excited to see you. Yeah, and so I think, you know, if you're going to be in the public spotlight, you kind of can't turn it on and off. It is what it is. And you know, so I always stop for fe photos and you know, people are excited and cheering for McLaren this weekend and in airports, and so you do have to kind of raise your awareness. Security is something that you need to think a little bit about, which is unfortunate
but as the reality. But you know, I've always felt that way on my own mind, so I think it's part of it. It comes back to the entertainment aspect. I've seen some celebrities over the years that we all have that are you know, kind of I'm not working right now. It's like, dude, you signed up to be in the public spotlight. Yeah, you're working. There could be times it's a bit more inconvenient if you like. I mean, it can be a little bit strange when you're in
the bathroom and someone wants to take a selfie. That's you know, i'd wait. But I also remember when I was a fan waiting to meet the the Alexes of the world. I was the guy waiting at the ballpark, got there early, figured out where the players park the car. I wanted their you know, autographed, and so I get it. I was there, and it comes back to I remember what impression it made on me, and so you know, it's changed things, but I'm good with it.
Yeah, how have you dealt with that, Alex? I don't know if we've ever talked about it on the show.
No, we haven't, Jason. But you know, for me, that process mindset was shaped early in my career because they say you never want to meet your heroes, but in my case, it was wonderful that I met my heroes. I mean, from Michael Jordan to Cayle Ripken, Keith Hernandez Magic Johnson. They were all honestly ten out of ten. And I told myself when I was a teenager boy, if I ever was that famous, I want to be like Magic. I want to be like Michael. I want to be like cay Ripkin. But early in my career
it's flipped Jason. To answer your question more specifically, I thought the media was a nuance, like something you had to deal with but I thought they were against me right as of my you know, because you in New York you want to play defense against the media, and then the fan base was something you had to kind of dance around to get some privacy. Today is completely flipped. With some perspective, I realized that without fans, you don't
have a sport, you don't have a team. We're really kind of working for them, even though we're not a public company at least us you is as close as public as you can be. And then the media is a great conduit to our fan base. And you've seen it in you know, Drive to Survive your f one show, and you've seen it with content that NBA's provided MLB. It's an incredible important part of our business and that has switched.
You must have had an even bigger challenge though, because while you know, okay, I'm known on Netflix Flix, when you came to the Yankees, that was more like royalty level of publicity. Right with me. They just want to know what's going on on the track with you. They want to know what's going on in the field, what's
off the field, what restaurant were you at. They wanted to know kind of about your twenty four to seven and that I would imagine is a higher degree of frustration or annoyance when it's like, look, this isn't about a fan coming up asking for an autograph. This is about you trying to dive into my personal life. And I fortunately haven't had to deal with that.
Yeah, Zach, you're spot on it. And there was three things, and I played in New York for almost fifteen years, there was three things that did religiously every morning three sixty five twenty four seven when I woke up, I put out the New York Post and I would look at the front page, I'm not there, look at the back page, I'm not there. And then you look at page six. It was a trifecta. If you made it clear on those three it's a good day. You lived to see the end of the day.
And the problem was those three pages weren't about how you hit last night, right. I mean, they wanted something a little bit more gossipy than that. So I think that gets frustrating because they can kind of start to shape your image in a way that's not accurate. I've met so many people that I didn't know, so I had an impression which I was formed because of what I've read, and then you meet him, I'm like, man,
that guy couldn't be totally opposite, more misunderstood. And so you've learned to give everyone the kind of I want to get to know the person and not kind of just believe what I read.
And Zach, one of the one of the head fakes that I've seen athletes do is they make a mistake to the media and then the journalist does his job, he writes a story, and then the athlete gets mad at the media member, and you got to realize, wait a minute, they got a job to do. You made a mistake, correct the mistake. Do it less is more applied to what you're talking about, Zach, And don't get mad at the reporter. So that that's another dynamic that
is so easy to blame the reporter. Not look in the mirror and say, Okay, how did I make a mistake here? I got to do a better job managing my my look.
At Alex defending journalists, this is like I feel like my work here is done, Like this is.
This is just I don't know what a moment.
So we're going to get to our lightning round in in just a minute, because I know you got to go, but you know, I want to ask you, you know, sort of in the spirit of the deal. You know, you've you've somewhat quietly, sort of really built under McLaren racing like an empire. You know, you talked about Formula One, you talked about Indy. You know, you're going back to Lamon, You're doing a little racing yourself, Like what's next for the business. You know, this is a booming sport right now.
You know, I have to think you're leaning into other opportunities. Are they motor sports related? Are there other sports you're interested in? We're in such an you know again, we're in such an interesting moment of growth in the sports ecosystem. Where do you see opportunity?
Yeah, I think you know, we've only won one World championship in the last twenty six years, so I think we're we're far from tick. That's that's Sharon. So obviously, you know, as a sports team, it's all about winning and trying to win. So we are the only racing team I've ever won the Triple Crown, which is the Indy five hundred, the twenty four hours Lamont and Monaco. No team has ever done that in the same era,
same year. We're now competing or going to be competing in all three of those series the Lamas Series in twenty twenty seven, so it would be pretty cool to do something that's never been done before. That can be a jeopardy question twenty years from now. So I think we all have an aspect of looking back and what's kind of the legacy you can create because you can't rewrite the record books, so a lot of winning left still to do in all three series. That's first foremost.
We're looking at a few different ways that we could maybe extend our brand into maybe some other sporting equipment, you know, golf, scheme, tennis, those are some you know sports that are using aerodynamics, using materials that are premium. There's you know a lot of our sponsors are also in golf. So I think if there was a you know, Ferrari has the Ferrari World theme park in n Abu Dhabi, and then you've seen Porsche's got the Porsche of Towers.
So but we're a racing team first and foremost. But if there's from a business point of view, a few areas that we might be able to extend our brand that would be of interest to us. But I think it's kind of let's stay let's stay focused. If you're a baseball team, don't try and be a football team. Right, You're a baseball team, and we're a racing team, and I like the three racing series that we're in the
three biggest forms of motor racing. We've not won the Indy five hundred since nineteen seventy six, So that's a focus before we think about doing anything anything.
Else, Alex, anything else for we moved to lightning rounds.
No, I think we're ready.
Right, let's do it all right, So five questions.
We'll bounce it back and forth and just you know, say whatever comes to your mind. All right, Zach Brown, what's the best piece of advice you've received on deal making your business?
Don't make the same mistake twice.
Who's your dream deal making partner?
Oh? Good question. I think that have to be Roger Penske. Oh, Rogers great one.
One.
We got to get him on the show. Roger's awesome that we both pitched him on it. And I think he's gonna do it all right.
That he travels like two hundred and seventy one days a year. He can't keep up with that guy.
He's he's unbelievable. All right, what's the most nervous you've ever been?
I mean usually the start of the race, but I would say Abu Dhabi last year when we won the championship, because Saturday qualifying was perfect, first and second, the Ferrari was seventeenth. Turn one max for stopping takes out Oscar, Oscar's last Charles has an unbelievable start. He's eight, Charles Leclair Leclaire, and all of a sudden, I saw our championship going away. Lando had to win that race to win the championship, and so that was the longest two
hours of my life. So I'd say that was the most nervous.
Yeah, it's right there.
It's for two hours too. I don't mind nervous like the start of the race. It's over nervous getting up to the bat, but kind of like once the picture winds up. It all this was two hours.
So what's your hype song before you walk into a big meeting or negotiation.
Oh, that's a good question. I don't really have a hype song. Snoop Dogg's pretty cool, dude. I kind of like rap high energy, so that you know the guys that are doing kind of classical musical on the grid. I kind of like the adrenal government.
All right, So what's your advice for someone listening who wants a career like yours?
Everyone says hard work, but it's amazing how many people don't actually do it and then just get in experience and networking. And I sometimes have people come in and they're they're big aspirations, which are great, but they kind of want to start there as opposed to work their way up. So I think it's just get experience, get to know people, and follow your passion. That's all I've ever done. I didn't kind of this wasn't my plan.
I just knew I wanted to be in racing my entire life, and I've just worked really hard and I've been fortunate to land where I am. Can I do two for a run?
Yeah? Yeah, all right for it?
All right?
Sure.
Toughest pitcher you ever faced.
I would say nineteen ninety nine Pedro Martinez. He can do it all. He had three perfect pitches, a fast bought one hundred ninety one mine hour slider and bugs bunny change up.
Okay, Pedro is unbelievable. I guess he had also the inside pitch if he felt you might take him along, so that would be his fourth pitch. And then who's the best hitter you played with?
Boy, that's such a great question. I would say the best right handed hitter I ever played with was Edgar Martinez, who's in the Hall of Fame and probably the best complete right handed hitter. And there's so many. I would say Manny Ramirez awesome.
And the last one, who's your favorite ballplayer growing up? Like they didn't play with, but like who's your idol?
Well, I had three, and they all had to do with media because these as you remember when we were kids, you know, there was the three big station at w R where you watch the Mets. You had TBS where you watched the Braves, and then you had WGN where you watched the Cups. And so therefore it was Dale Murphy, Keith Hernandez from the Mets, and I love Darryl.
Darryl Strawberry is awesome, except I'm a Cardinals guy, so so Keith Hernandez from the Cardinals. But I know not on the same channel.
Yeah, yeah, right, and of course cal Ripken because he was a tall, short step Yeah.
He was amazing, all right, Zach, Great, thanks for having me on. Thanks thanks guys, Thank you Zach.
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly. This episode was made by Anamazarakus, Stacy Wong, and Lizzie Phillip. Amy Keen is our editor and Will Connelly is our video editor.
Our theme music is.
Made by Blake Maples. Our executive producers are Kelly Leferrier, Ashley Hoenig, and Brenda Newham. Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Additional support from Rachel Carnivale and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks so much for listening to the Deal. If you have a minute, subscribe, rate and review our show. It'll help other listeners find us. I'm Jason Kelly. See you next week.