How McLaren CEO Zak Brown Became the Highest-Paid Executive in Formula 1
Today's newsletter takes you inside McLaren's financial playbook: $712 million in revenue, 1,283 employees, private jet bills, and heritage car refurbishments.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown earned $50 million during the team’s championship-winning season last year. Outside of drivers like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, $50 million in annual compensation makes Brown the highest-paid employee in F1.
Since McLaren’s racing division is a private company, we would typically need to rely on insider information or confidential sources to get compensation metrics. But in this case, we know that Zak Brown earned $50 million last year because McLaren’s racing division is headquartered in the United Kingdom. As a registered U.K. entity, McLaren is legally obligated to file annual financial statements with the U.K. registrar.
However, executive compensation is only one part of the requirement. These annual financial statements also include a breakdown of revenue streams, annual operating profits, average employee compensation, sponsorship agreements, tax incentives, office lease agreements, and other relevant information. McLaren’s report even tells us how much the company spends each year to maintain its collection of historic cars.
So for today’s newsletter, I’m going to give you a complete financial breakdown of the 70-page report that McLaren submitted last week. Yes, I am a madman and printed out the entire report, reading it word by word to highlight the most interesting details.
The result is an inside look at how a $5 billion sports team operates financially. In fact, the details are so interesting that I plan to develop this into a series. Over the next few weeks, subscribers will receive a similar breakdown on other F1 teams headquartered in the United Kingdom, including Mercedes, Red Bull, and Williams.