Could McLaren sign a female F1 driver? Team boss takes huge stride after announcement

Zak Brown, McLaren, 2024, generic — Photo: © IMAGO

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Could McLaren sign a female F1 driver? Team boss takes huge stride after announcement

Zak Brown is an advisor for More Than Equal

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 18 September 2025 11:13 Updated: 11:30

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A new role for McLaren CEO Zak Brown has led to hope that McLaren could be set to hire a female racing driver to their team in the future.

McLaren currently have a female racer in their junior driver programme, with Ella Lloyd excelling in F1 Academy.

20-year-old Lloyd sits fourth in the 2025 standings having picked up a race victory and three further podiums with her Rodin Motorsport team.

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However, McLaren's driver development programme sees a huge gender imbalance. Lloyd is surrounded by six male racers in the programme, including Pato O'Ward, Alex Dunne and Ugo Ugochukwu.

Now, Brown appears to be trying to rectify this imbalance, becoming a member of the advisory board of the More Than Equal organisation.

More Than Equal are a global high-performance motorsport programme with the mission to find and develop the first female F1 world champion.

An online statement read: "We’re thrilled to welcome Zak Brown to our inaugural Advisory Board.

"With a career spent in motorsport first as a racing driver, then as an entrepreneur and now at the helm of Mclaren Racing, his insight and expertise will be instrumental in helping us shape our programmes and supporting the next generation of female talent."

Whether it be Lloyd or somebody else, Brown's decision to join this organisation suggests he is committed to trying to promote a female racer into an F1 opportunity within his McLaren team.

The last female racer to compete in an F1 race weekend was Susie Wolff at the 2014 British GP, when she took part in FP1 for Williams.

Susie Wolff is now the managing director of F1 Academy

Brown seeking to promote from within?

McLaren's current F1 drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have excelled in 2025, with both stars challenging for the drivers' championship.

They are both tied down to long-term contracts, but there is a genuine feeling that when one of them opts to switch teams, McLaren will promote from within, with both Dunne and O'Ward taking part in practice sessions during the 2025 season.

Former McLaren F1 racer David Coulthard, co-founder of More than Equal, said of the new advisory board in an official statement: "Motorsport is about performance, and this initiative is no exception.

"We are assembling the best minds to help unlock female talent and give them a real pathway to the top. This advisory board reflects our commitment to excellence, on and off the track."

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Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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