Zak Brown cools McLaren works-engine talk

Zak Brown said in Monaco that McLaren’s priority for Formula 1’s next engine cycle is to stay with Mercedes, pushing back on fresh talk that the reigning world champion team could launch its own power-unit program.

Speaking during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, the McLaren CEO said the team is "extremely happy" with Mercedes HPP and made clear that continuity, not a factory-engine project, is the current plan. "First of all, we are very happy with HPP, they have been a great partner," Brown said. "The priority number one is to stay with Mercedes. They are a great partner."

Brown said McLaren would only revisit the question when Formula 1’s next power-unit regulations for 2030 or 2031 are finalized. At that point, he said, the team would judge any possible change on two grounds: whether the rules are technically attractive and whether they make financial sense.

That left the door open in principle to a future McLaren-built engine, but Brown stressed that the team is not approaching the next cycle as a manufacturer. "I think we’ll look at it when the time comes," he said, adding that McLaren has no seat in the power-unit working group and can only wait to see the final shape of the rules.

On the direction of those rules, Brown said the broad themes he has heard so far sound encouraging. He pointed to the prospect of a V8, a larger combustion engine, sustainable fuel, a smaller battery, hybrid elements and better sound, while making clear that Mercedes remains McLaren’s technical reference on those matters.

Brown also used McLaren’s record with Mercedes power to underline why the team is not rushing toward engine ownership. "We won several championships with them, even though everyone said it was impossible to win with a customer engine," he said.

That stance matters because it frames McLaren’s recent title-winning success as evidence that a customer team can still win at the top level, while signaling that any move toward a works engine will depend on the next rules package offering a clear technical and economic case rather than on momentum or speculation alone.