McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown names title favourites and fears THREE second gap

Zak Brown, McLaren, generic, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

McLaren boss Zak Brown names F1 title favourites and fears THREE second gap

Zak Brown has named his favourites for the 2026 title

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Friday 6 February 2026 17:54

McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown has neglected to name his own team as the favourites to take the title in 2026.

The rule reset for 2026 leaves a major question mark as to who will lead the competitive order, with reigning champions McLaren not certain to dominate as they did in 2025.

A two-horse race between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris played out for the most of last season, that was until Red Bull got their act together and Max Verstappen enjoyed a resurgence.

Article continues under video

That is all ancient (two-month-old) history now, with a different team capturing the headlines after the Barcelona shakedown. Mercedes.

Mercedes' impressive mileage and confident interviews after the shakedown seem to suggest they'll come out on top in 2026, and their rivals concur with this line of thinking.

F1 HEADLINES: Horner makes decision on return as legend linked with stunning McLaren move

Brown believes Mercedes are on top

Speaking on David Land's YouTube channel, McLaren boss Brown revealed who he thinks will rule the roost in 2026.

While it is too early to say with confidence, Brown's musings aligned with the rest of the F1 community.

"It looks like The Big Four are the big four. Hard to know, yet in what order, if you went to Vegas today, I think Mercedes looks like the favourite sitting here right now, but a long way to go," he said.

"Williams didn't make it out. Aston [Martin] only got out the very end [of testing]. So you have no idea where Williams stands. I think the grid will be more spread out, which is to be expected in new formula for a little bit.

"So last year in Abu Dhabi, I think a second covered the entire field. I would anticipate it being two or three seconds covers the entire field. But that's normal.

"We're going to have to learn how to race these cars a little bit differently because they've run out of deployment.

"So I still think there's some work to be done with the FIA to refine the rules, to make sure that while there's strategy and how you deploy the battery and the energy, that you know we're not running out of energy at the end of straights and getting into lift and coasts.

"I don't think that'll be visible to the fan, because we were three, four seconds off what was last year's base, but you can't see that.

"So you're going around Indy, you can't tell the difference between 230[mph] and 226, they look like they're flying so early to tell, but it kind of looks like the usual suspects, but too hard to tell in what order."

F1 Mercedes McLaren Zak Brown