Zak Brown takes swipe at Christian Horner over “excuses” and “not taking ownership”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has taken another swipe at Red Bull F1 team boss Christian Horner for “making excuses” and “not taking ownership” over a number of issues.

Since McLaren’s resurgence on-track, Brown hasn’t been afraid to lock horns with Horner.

Brown was vocal in his criticism of Red Bull when they exceeded F1’s cost cap.

He claimed Red Bull’s overspending ‘constituted cheating’ which didn’t go down well.

More recently, Brown was outspoken amid Horner’s inappropriate behaviour scandal calling for “transparency”.

Similarly, the American poked fun at Red Bull when they lost Adrian Newey, stating the team will likely lose more key personnel with “CVs floating around”.

In an interview with the BBC, Brown shed light on his relationship with Horner and why it has deteriorated.

"I've known Christian for about 25, 30 years. We used to race against each other. I would say we used to get on,” he said.

"I believe in transparency. I believe in putting your hand up when you get something wrong. The cost cap, the excuses behind that, I never really heard a 'we just got it wrong'. I heard excuses and not taking ownership.

"When someone breaches the cost cap, and doesn't seem to kind of take it seriously, that's kind of hitting the integrity and core of the sport.

"To me, it's not personal. It's protecting our sport.”

Brown again made reference to Horner’s pre-season controversy, adding it wasn’t “consistent with our values”.

"And when I see things not consistent with our values, I'm going to speak up about it because it's important people understand where we're coming from,” he added.

"I realise that's not necessarily always going to be popular, or make friends with everyone in the pit lane, but as long as I'm friends with McLaren, our fans, our partners, that's what's most important to me."