Zak Brown Once Sold McLaren’s State of the Art HQ for $237 Million to Pay Salaries

McLaren’s turnaround in fortunes has been nothing short of remarkable. Back in 2015, the team were not only struggling with massive financial issues but were also languishing at the back of the grid.

And almost a decade later, they have now won the Constructors’ Championship. Most of the credit for this sensational turnaround goes to McLaren CEO Zak Brown, who once also sold the team’s state-of-the-art headquarters for a whopping $237 million to pay the salaries of the employees.

F1 journalist Joe Pompliano revealed via his YouTube channel that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, McLaren signed a sale deed and a 20-year leaseback agreement for their Woking headquarters. As a result, McLaren continue to work in Woking but no longer own the headquarters.

That’s not the only thing Brown sold as he also sold a 15% stake of McLaren’s F1 team to MSP Sports Capital and some of the company’s historic cars to raise money.

And just four years after suffering through such struggles, Brown has helped McLaren not only gain the most number of sponsors but has also helped the team’s valuation increase to a staggering $2.65 billion.

McLaren has no space on their cars to add sponsors

Pompliano added in his video that McLaren today have over 50 sponsors, having had only a handful of them just a few years ago. He adds that the team have so many sponsors today that they “literally ran out of space for sponsors on the car”.

As a result, McLaren innovated by building digital advertising panels across the cockpits of their cars. While Brown would undoubtedly be proud of his success, he himself admitted once in an interview how “brutal” McLaren’s situation was just a few years ago.

“Things were brutal,” he said per the clip Pompliano added in his video. “Zero points at the start of the 2023 season, financial issues four or five years ago and to turn that around and be Constructors’ Champions is amazing”.

And perhaps more importantly than being champions, McLaren also posted a $38 million profit in 2023, having reported an $11 million loss the year before.