Arrow McLaren needs “more consistency” to challenge IndyCar’s powerhouses – Brown

Zak Brown believes the Arrow McLaren IndyCar Series team can mirror his Formula 1 outfit’s uptick in fortunes as it follows the “same concept”.

McLaren has won two Formula 1 grands prix in 2024 and has closed the gap on series dominators Red Bull in the constructors’ championship in recent weeks.

In IndyCar, Arrow McLaren’s lead driver Pato O’Ward has also scored two victories, and briefly grabbed second in points after the first leg of Iowa's double-header.

But he has since slipped back to fifth, due in no small part to a huge wreck in the most recent race at Toronto.

Speaking exclusively to Autosport at the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, when asked if there are any parallels between the two teams, Brown replied: “Same concept.

“Get the best drivers in the world, certainly the best drivers in IndyCar, build the team the same way, empower the leadership, give them the direction and support and resources they need to be the best at what they can do.

“Be honest with ourselves, learn from our mistakes. So, I think there's a lot of similarities.”

Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Zak Brown

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

The last 11 IndyCar titles have been won by either Team Penske or Chip Ganassi Racing, and it is Brown’s stated aim to break their duopoly in future.

When asked what it would take to do that, he replied: “I think just more consistency.

“At the Indy 500 we were pretty awesome. Lead a lot of the race. Our weakness seems to be bumps, so if you look at where we fall short, Toronto, Long Beach, [tracks] of that nature.

“I think our drivers’ situation, when Alex Palou breached his agreement with us, created a some drama that took us a while to recover from, which we're still recovering from, and we put in a driver [David Malukas] who then broke his wrist and on and on.

“So, I think that's been a very big distraction. That, I'm glad, it's behind us now.

“Very happy with our driver line-up. I think that's something that we didn't see coming, the driver breaching his agreement and the disruption that was going to cause.”

Arrow McLaren had initially announced that Theo Pourchaire would replace the injured Malukas for the rest of the season, but then replaced the Frenchman with Indy NXT graduate Nolan Siegel. 

Pourchaire though returned to the team in Toronto to replace Alexander Rossi, following his own thumb injury in practice. Rossi will depart the team next year, with Christian Lundgaard taking his place alongside Siegel and O'Ward.