Horner was dismissed last month after more than 20 years at the helm, with Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies promoted to replace him.
Brown revealed he held a private meeting with Mekies ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, highlighting a notable thaw in relations between the two organisations after tensions escalated over the past 18 months, and added that, overall, F1 would benefit from Horner’s exit.
“I’m happy he’s in the role he’s in,” Brown said of Mekies. “I like Laurent, and I think that’ll be healthy, and maybe we can get back to focusing on competition on the track.
“While there’s always going to be some political aspects to the sport, I think it’s going to be healthier with Laurent.
“I’m a fan of Laurent. I’ve known him for a long time, and I think it’ll be good to go racing against Laurent.”
Brown acknowledged that in recent years, tensions between McLaren and Red Bull had escalated, with the two teams frequently clashing over technical matters — including accusations of tyre tampering at the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Reflecting on that period, he said the rivalry under Horner had crossed a line.
“I think that it went too far. There’s always going to be politicking, and let’s try and shut down their flexi wings and that stuff,” he said.
“But when you start getting into frivolous allegations, I think that’s just going too far.
“If I look up and down pitlane now, I see us fighting each other hard politically, but there being a line that’s not crossed.
“I think that line got crossed before, and I think it was unhealthy. So I think that we’ll see a little bit of a change for the better.”
Brown said he wants the Red Bull–McLaren rivalry to resemble the more respectful competition he shares with Ferrari and Mercedes.
He pointed to Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur joining McLaren’s celebrations after Lando Norris’ maiden victory in Miami last season as an example of how fierce rivals can still maintain camaraderie.
“I love the way we raced Ferrari,” Brown said. “Fred [Vasseur] kind of started it by celebrating our Miami win.
“I’ve known Fred a long time. He’s a proper racer, and the way we went racing – make no mistake about it, we want to beat each other – but I enjoyed that.
“I thought that was really good for the sport.”
He added that type of rivalry was better suited to fans of modern F1.
“From a fan’s point of view, the drama of the villain stuff, I think works. But I also think the celebratory ‘fight it out on track, but then kind of photobomb each other’, which that all kind of just happened, that’s really good,” Brown added.
“That’s a more fun way to go racing, and can be just as entertaining as the good cop, bad cop thing.”
Brown also said that improved trust and communication between teams would benefit not just McLaren but the entire sport.
“I also think it’s important for the benefit of the sport, that we all can work together, and there’s a higher level of trust,” he said.
“That if we sit down and have a conversation on a topic, that we think that there can be some confidentiality to that, and it’s just not an automatic: ‘Well, I’m going to use that as a political weapon.’
“I think we’re going to be in a better place to be a little bit more unified and a little bit more trusting that, while we’re fighting it out on the track, we can have a conversation about what’s good for the sport – and that won’t get manipulated in a way for political reasons and taken out of context.”
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