McLaren CEO Zak Brown was recently seen having dinner with Red Bull's chief car designer, Adrian Newey, after attending Monterey Car Week. Brown posted pictures where both were also joined by Ford CEO Jim Farley and nine-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen.
The most interesting part of the pictures was that Brown was wearing Newey's Red Bull Racing cap, while Newey was wearing Brown's McLaren cap.
In the Twitter post, Zak Brown wrote:
"Great meal with some real legends to wrap up Monterey Car Week! CEO of Ford @JimFarley98, 9-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen and the man in the McLaren cap who knows a thing or two about car design. It’s a good fit, Adrian! He was very thoughtful to get me a cap in return!"
As soon as Brown posted the pictures, it blew up instantly as many F1 fans reacted to them, especially talking about the swapping of team caps. Of course, constant rumors about team personnel leaving and joining teams fly across the F1 universe. Hence, this humorous swap of hats elicited a lot of reactions from fans.
Some hoped that Zak Brown and Adrian Newey only swapped caps and had no other contracts or more serious paperwork between them. While others pointed out how good Red Bull's chief car designer looks in papaya colors.
Some also humorously speculated that McLaren could work with Ford powertrains starting in 2026, since Jim Farley was also present at the dinner table.
Here are some of the reactions:
"Hopefully, you only swapped hats."
"He looks good in Papaya"
"That will start the rumour mill churning, Zak!"
Lando Norris shows commitment to McLaren despite them going through rough patches
Debunking several transfer rumors surrounding him, Lando Norris recently declared his loyalty to McLaren. He explained how he sometimes feels down because of the team's inability to have a good weekend. Despite that, he never thought of leaving the team.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Lando Norris said:
"There are frustrating times and just difficult times, but at no point did I think: ‘This is not where I want to be.’ Of course, there are times when I wished we had a more competitive car and I wished that we could have started the year in a smoother way.
"It doesn't give you a lot of hope in beginning of the year when you struggle as much as what we did."
The British team is currently fifth in the constructors' championship with 103 points. They are ahead of Alpine and behind Ferrari.