McLaren investment in IndyCar will 'benefit' F1 team - Brown

Zak Brown believes that McLaren Racing's 75% equity stake in Arrow McLaren SP will add value to the IndyCar outfit, but the investment will also benefit the papaya squad's F1 team.

McLaren first partnered with Schmidt Peterson Motorsport's at the end of 2019, an strategic involvement that raised the performance level of the IndyCar team that now ranks among the US series' championship contenders.

But the acquisition of a majority stake in Arrow McLaren SP by McLaren Racing see the latter leverage its F1 expertise for the former's benefit. But Brown insists the transfer will work both ways.

"We have the people and technology, knowhow and resources that we think we can take from our Formula 1 team to enhance our IndyCar team and I also think it goes the other way around," explained Brown last weekend in Nashville.

"While Formula 1 is, technically, the most advanced form of motorsport, there’s a lot of knowledge and knowhow in the IndyCar team so I think they’re both going to mutually benefit.

"You can imagine there are things in Woking, technical tools that we use that a lot of IndyCar teams outsource, for that we have those, the ability to do those in-house.

"So that’s something that Taylor [Kiel - McLaren SP president] and his team along with the people I’ve got dedicated to the IndyCar team sitting in McLaren, have started to identify a couple years ago.

"I think you’re seeing the benefit this year of what they learned last year and that will now just accelerate.

"And now that we’re the majority owner of the team, I use the example like when you’re renting a house, you’re maybe not going to put your best furniture in it, but when you own the house, then you’re going to go ahead and invest more and that’s exactly what we’ll do now."

• Read also: McLaren Racing acquires majority stake in IndyCar squad

Currently, two drivers - Pato O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist - live in McLaren's new 'house'. But the team hopes to expand to a three-car outfit next season in an effort to increase its chances of success.

"It’s just about [putting] the right package together," said Brown. "We’ve got resources, so the economics are not a concern.

"But we want to run three cars that can win races and compete for the championship. I think this is very much a driver championship as much as it is a team, that’s what makes it so exciting.

"So we need to make sure we can get the right pilot, as they say, in the race car. And there’s not a lot of them on the market. So we’ve got a very short list.

"If we can land someone that we think is capable of winning, we’ll go for it in ’22. If not, we’ll spend ’22 to making sure we find the right driver for ’23. But we definitely want to be there with three cars in ’23."

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