Before the McLaren CEO got a $50 million payday from his team’s F1 championship, he was a high-school dropout who got his start on Wheel of Fortune

Mc Laren Racing Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crossed the finish line at the Miami Grand Prix last week in second and third place respectively, marking the team’s first double podium of the year following its second consecutive Constructors’ Championship season in 2025. One of the oldest teams in F1’s 76-year history, Mc Laren has reportedly reached an estimated worth of a record $5 billion under the leadership of CEO Zak Brown, topping Ferrari’s estimated $4.8 billion valuation in 2024. Since joining McLaren in 2016, Brown has not only capitalized on F1’s meteoric growth in the U.S. to grow the team’s sponsorship spending, but has also helped McLaren take its first constructors’ title since 1998. Given the team’s success, Brown’s payday for 2025 did no doubt rival that of his 2024 compensation worth more than $50 million (£37.3 million). But before the McLaren boss was making eight figures in the rubber-burning world of F1, he made his first fortune spinning different wheels. Born in Los Angeles, Brown was a high school dropout with aspirations only for a career in baseball, which fizzled alongside his formal education. “I was not a good student. I didn’t go, and then when I did go, I got in trouble—a lot of fighting,” Brown said in an episode of The Bottom Line podcast released in July 2025. “I actually broke my high school president’s jaw in a fight. That’s what got me thrown out at the end.” But during one of Brown’s (self-admitted) few days he was at school in 1984, showrunners for American quiz show juggernaut Wheel of Fortune went in search of students for its Teen Week tapings. Brown became one of 15 kids to compete on the show, and he won the first two rounds, taking with him a pair of watches as his winnings. With an interest in F1 piqued after his family attended a race in 1981 and a family connection in motorsports, Brown used his newfound earnings to begin his racing career. “I went and turned around and so