McLaren is ready to kick the ass in IndyCar

Image: Arrow McLaren SP

McLaren already had a bumpy road in its entry into full-time IndyCar racing. When it attempted an Indy 500 attempt for Fernando Alonso in 2017, it ended with tears in a burned engine. 2019 was a complete disaster as Fred couldn’t even qualify for the race. However, when it teamed up with Arrow Schmidt Peterson for an entire season, things turned around in a big way. And it looks like McLaren boss Zak Brown wants to invest even more in this program.

For 2020, the Papaya Orange team tripled its efforts and launched a full-fledged two-car team for the season that Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew hired to drive. It didn’t take long for the points and podiums to appear. Askew is canceled for 2021, replaced by Felix Rosenqvist. At the very first race of the season, the Alabama Honda Indy Grand Prix, held last weekend, O’Ward put his Chevy machine on pole.

Had it not been for a deficit in racing pace, a slow pit stop, and the wrong strategy for this event, O’Ward could have been able to claim the team’s first win. He ran close to the front for the entire race and eventually came home fourth after a late race fee on fresh, soft tires failed to pay off. Rosenqvist qualified well enough for the team in his first race but was pulled out of the race on a first lap. It is clear that McLaren has a fast team this year. Maybe it’s not perfect for Ganassi or Penske, but it gets there.

Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson, together with Brown, were looking for a third full-time driver for the squad right from the start, but will only approach someone “if it creates added value”. As a team with two cars against the four teams of Andretti, Ganassi and Penske, it will be difficult to fight the long term without the additional data that another driver could provide. This is especially true of Indianapolis.

Zak Brown: “Third driver yes, fourth driver… I’m not so sure. I think three is better than two. It must be a driver of Patos and Felix’s caliber. We will not be running a rent-a-ride scenario. If you look at Roger – that’s probably the best way to go, three drivers and a fourth at Indy, and they’re all championship calibers. Even Chip had to go to a few rental drivers to round out his program. I think Roger did the best. “

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I’m not sure who Brown shits with his dig in the Ganassi lineup. It certainly isn’t Scott Dixon, and I would hope it isn’t seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. This leaves the current championship leader Alex Palou and former F1 driver Marcus Ericsson. Of the four, Ericsson has the smallest claim to size on Chip’s team. I suppose this means that Zak Brown is playing with Marcus Ericsson. You heard it here first.

He continues: “I think the two guys will give everything they have in every lap. From a mindset standpoint, I think they are the same age. Felix has a lot more experience due to the different series he’s been on, but they’re both in their years with IndyCar so they’re both teenage in that sense and they’ll push each other hard, but I think you get along well and have a lot of respect for each other. “

Here there is the potential for McLaren to rise to IndyCars “Big Three” and to optimize a little. Both drivers on the team are fast, but the addition of a third championship-caliber teammate could be a boon to all three drivers. Additional data, additional testing, additional sponsorship, and additional effort will help the team perform at their peak. As Rosenqvist’s fall in the first round on Sunday demonstrated, it’s always good to have more than one proverbial bullet in the chamber.

Before the season began, Zak Brown and young Pato were betting a little on the fact that if O’Ward wins his first race for McLaren of the season, he will receive a test in the McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 car at the end of the season Abu Dhabi test. There has also been some talk of getting McLaren’s F1 stars Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo into an Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet Dallara IR18.

Here again Brown: “Many drivers on the Formula 1 starting grid would like to drive a street circuit – not so many ovals. But I think Daniel and Lando … yes. They are focused on Formula 1 and are in a different part of their career than Fernando, but I would say there is an opportunity in the future depending on how everything turns out. “

It’s interesting to think about who could join the McLaren team in third. Zak Brown is looking for a unicorn.