Brown: "That's certainly not a good way to motivate an employee"

In retrospect, Zak Brown thinks it was very good that Carlos Sainz immediately signed a two-year contract for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. According to the boss of McLaren, that has contributed a lot to the good results of Sainz at the race stable in Woking.

"As I said, Sainz was a very determined person, but I think athletes need to understand their minds and what drives them. We're all different, so I think you have to adapt to each individual," Brown said in conversation with Marca. That's also what McLaren has been doing over the past period.

For example, working with 26-year-old Madrileen is very different from Fernando Alonso, Brown says: "And I think some teams, not all of them, say: 'That's how we work, you adapt to us', and that works for some, but I think at McLaren we have created a family atmosphere and that's why we adapt to each other more easily", says the top man.

McLaren worked differently from Red Bull and Renault

Carlos Sainz switched to McLaren after the 2018 season. Until then, the Spaniard was mainly accustomed to one-year contracts with Red Bull and Renault. "I think we have helped to build Carlos' confidence. If you keep driving around with one-year deals, you feel that your next race could be your last, and that's certainly not a good way to motivate an employee. With a contract like that, you are under constant and unreasonable pressure. I think what we did worked very well for us and we both maximised the results of each contract," concludes Brown.