Yahoo Sports Zak Brown Is Tired of Waiting for McLaren to Win the Indy 500
Every Long Beach trip is a homecoming for native Angelino Zak Brown, but this one is special. McLaren's racing boss brought a car with him from the brand's collection, the M16 that won the 1974 Indianapolis 500. Brown will celebrate the 50th anniversary of that last McLaren win in the race by driving the car at Indianapolis. It is a reminder of the brand’s glorious past in America, but he is growing tired of the long wait to see the team's orange cars win that trophy again.
Previously, Brown has said that he would continue to attend the Indianapolis 500 over his Formula 1 duties at Monaco until the Arrow McLaren IndyCar operation finally wins the 500-mile race. After a second-place finish in the 2022 race and DNFs from the cars that led the most and third-most laps in the 2023 race, he tells Road & Track "That's the plan as it sits here today, but I'd like to get on with winning, because I do need to get back to Monaco."
On that side of the world, Brown runs a successful F1 operation that has embraced the new commercial realities of a cost-capped championship tied at the hip to a Netflix reality show. Under his tutelage, McLaren has two popular, promising young drivers who have helped the program claw all the way back from a nearly six-year run without a podium to four straight top-five finishes in the constructor's championship. The team currently sits third in this year's standings. That progress gives Brown a little bit of leeway to focus on his IndyCar operation, a program that seems to be in a constant state of resetting.
Arrow McLaren IndyCar team principal Gavin Ward tells Road & Track that the papaya-colored program is "trying to win Indy 500s and championships almost in equal bias." The team's one constant since 2020, Pato O'Ward has come perilously close to both honors. He came up short of the championship in 2021 and the 500 in 2022, but he remains the team's best shot at either honor.
In 2022, O'Ward came up short when he could not pass a blocking Marcus Ericsson on a race-ending restart. In 2023, the team brought a much faster car. O'Ward and teammate Felix Rosenqvist combined to lead 72 laps, but both failed to actually finish the race. It was another year without the Borg-Warner Trophy returning to England.
Behind O’Ward, McLaren hasn’t been able to lock in a clear and consistent set of drivers. With the blockbuster signing of Alex Palou ending with Palou still at Ganassi, the lineup has remained in flux behind O'Ward for the fifth straight season. David Malukas joins this year alongside O'Ward and 2023 signee Alexander Rossi, moving over from the smaller Dale Coyne Racing. It is a lineup with a clear bias toward oval performance, showing the focus the team has put toward the crown jewel of IndyCar racing.
Unfortunately, Malukas has not actually raced in a McLaren yet. He was injured in a bike crash back in February, delaying his long-awaited promotion from the smaller Dale Coyne Racing to one of IndyCar's elite programs. That means the team has had to rely on reserve drivers, forcing McLaren to make another hiring decision signing Callum Ilott. When Ilott had to fulfill existing World Endurance Championship obligations, the team had to pick a new driver again, again.
That left McLaren with the need for effectively the third hire of the year for the same car, but Zak Brown is nothing if not fond of making a splash. He found reigning Formula 2 champion and current Sauber F1 reserve Theo Pourchaire, who jumped into the car at Long Beach with no real-world IndyCar experience.
Brown says that Pourchaire spent the weekend "drinking from a firehose," figuring out the complexities of the difficult IndyCar and complications of a fast street circuit at the same time. The F2 champion started 22nd, but he got up to speed over the course of the week and went on to finish 11th. It is an encouraging sign for Pourchaire, who earned another shot in the car at Barber this upcoming weekend.
It is unclear how long Pourchaire, Ilott, or anyone else will run in the No. 6 McLaren entry. Brown says that the team "[does not] know [Malukas's] situation yet, he doesn't know until he gets the pins out. It appears it was certainly worse than we initially thought, so that's a very fluid situation." Even once Malukas returns, Brown says that the team is "hot on the driver market." He also notes that Rossi is about to be out of contract, although he adds that "we're very happy with [Rossi]."
If Malukas misses the 500, Brown’s quest to win the 500 will involve yet another driver decision. The McLaren boss expects the No. 6 to be one of 18 cars with a chance to win the race, so it will not go to just anyone who wants the experience. He mentions team advisor and 2023 McLaren one-off Tony Kanaan as an option, although Ilott notably already tested the car in place of Malukas during an Indianapolis 500 open test two weeks ago.
No matter who runs that No. 6 car, the biggest story at McLaren will be the driver of the No. 17 entry. That would be NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, who is running in partnership with his NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports. The partnership is possible because of McLaren's relationship with Chevrolet, allowing the team access to one of GM’s marquee talents.
The Larson deal is one of two new partnerships for the team, which is eyeing expansion of its business practices without expanding past the three full-time cars its current shop can hold. The other is with Juncos Hollinger Racing, Ilott’s former team. Brown only calls the two “friendly neighbors” for now, but the JHR entries already wear a hint of the McLaren program’s famous papaya orange and the relationship is expected to grow from here.
The team is moving into a new shop in late 2025, but Brown does not expect an expansion to four cars to follow with the new footprint. Instead, Brown says, the team could go IMSA or World Endurance Championship racing and would likely focus on a prototype operation. That, he adds, would require two years of build-up from the day the program begins to ramp up. He adds that McLaren would be interested only in the LMDh rule set, which is both more affordable than the LMH rules and already directly integrated into the domestic IMSA championship without any further changes.
That would be a new car designed and run as a McLaren, but Brown says McLaren "would need an engine partner if we do LMDh" and notes that the close relationship between the team and GM could open the door for the Cadillac's powertrain to be a part of the McLaren entry. A partnership like that would actually be in line with the brand’s sports car racing history: The McLaren F1 that won Le Mans in 1995 not only used a BMW V-12, it featured prominent BMW branding on the rear bodywork.
New drivers, new partnerships, and entire new programs always seem to be on the horizon for Brown’s McLaren, a business that seems to be focused heavily on growing into the weight of its name as it races in America. Behind those future questions is a simple present problem: One of Formula 1’s most storied teams has been in IndyCar full-time for four years and has yet to grab a title or an Indianapolis 500.
Fifty years ago, the team accomplished the goal with Johnny Rutherford in that M16 Brown will be driving next month. When the 51st anniversary comes around, Brown is hoping the McLaren museum can house a modern IndyCar with a Baby Borg-Warner trophy or a championship pedigree of its own. Then, and only then, will the Arrow McLaren IndyCar team be a complete success.
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