McLaren Racing has purchased a majority share in the IndyCar team it co-owns, Arrow McLaren SP.
The company behind the Formula 1 team will now own 75% of the squad in a major increase of its IndyCar involvement.
It had previously been in what McLaren CEO Zak Brown called a “strategic partnership” with no actual equity involved.
Arrow McLaren SP will also be reconstituted with greater McLaren presence in its management, though the team name will not be changing.
It will also retain current drivers Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist for 2022.
“The team will be governed by a new five-person board, comprising three McLaren Racing appointees together with [co-owners] Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson, chaired by Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing,” said a McLaren statement.
“Taylor Kiel, president of Arrow McLaren SP, will continue to lead and oversee the operations of the team, reporting directly to the board.”
Brown said the acquisition should be taken as a clear sign of McLaren’s long-term commitment to IndyCar. Talks on the move had begun earlier this year and made rapid progress.
“Today’s announcement is a strong signal of our long-term commitment to IndyCar as both a racing series and a marketing platform for McLaren Racing and our sponsor partners,” he said.
“I want to pay tribute to Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson who, together with the commitment and support of Arrow Electronics, have built a formidable team for us to keep growing and fulfil our common ambition of consistently challenging for wins, Indy 500s and series titles.
“Key to this is the continued leadership of Taylor Kiel as president of the team, who has been instrumental to the progress of the partnership so far.”
Schmidt and Peterson both felt the increased McLaren involvement would be the final step the team needed to become one of IndyCar’s elite, and have underlined that they will remain involved.
“I’ve known Zak for 25 years. He’s a racer and this is a group of hardcore racers,” said Schmidt.
“We started our partnership two years ago and it’s gone extremely well, both technically and commercially.
“As we’ve seen we’re now a regular contender and ultimately for Ric and I, we are here to win races, win 500s and win championships. This next step ensures the resources to do that for a long time ahead.”
Peterson added: “We always believed that to accelerate our progress in IndyCar, partnering with a team of McLaren’s capability and F1 experience was a key strategy to propel us forward, and so it has proved.
“McLaren Racing now takes the baton and will combine the best of what they do with the best of what this team does to create something truly special.”
He also made clear that “this team was never for sale. It only happened because it’s the right company to do that”.
McLaren’s reintroduction to IndyCar came in 2017 via an Indianapolis 500 entry for Fernando Alonso, supported by the Andretti Autosport team.
After an ill-fated follow-up attempt with Alonso that was primarily a solo McLaren effort albeit with Carlin support in 2019, the team sought a new strategy for the future – having dramatically failed to even qualify at Indy.
It bought into ex-racer Schmidt and Peterson’s Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team, which had started IndyCar racing in the Indy Racing League in 2001.
The new team – Arrow McLaren SP – debuted in 2020, and spent its first season refining its unique new team set-up where McLaren provides a small team back at its Woking Formula 1 base to support the existing IndyCar operation.
Perseverance with the new set-up has led to success this year with the team’s first victory coming at Texas Motor Speedway, for which the victorious driver Patricio O’Ward earned a F1 test from Zak Brown, which is scheduled for this November in Abu Dhabi.
O’Ward added another win in Detroit and is second in the championship, while Felix Rosenqvist has struggled in his maiden year with the team as although its car is among the fastest on the grid it can be tricky to handle.
The team’s set-up philosophy has produced an unpredictable car at times, and although it turns its tyres on quicker than many of its rivals – which was vital to O’Ward’s Detroit win – that can hamper the ability to make the tyres last as long as its rivals.
A recent test at Portland gave Kiel cause for optimism on that front, and Rosenqvist will start this weekend’s Nashville race in fourth position, with O’Ward eighth on the grid.
Brown added that McLaren’s decision to step up its IndyCar presence was also an endorsement of the strides the series was taking under Roger Penske’s ownership.
“McLaren Racing believes IndyCar will continue to build our brand in North America, serve our expanding US fan and partner base across our racing portfolio and drive long-term value,” said Brown.
“The racing is second-to-none, with world-class competitors in both drivers and teams and a passionate, highly engaged fanbase.
“We see real potential for the series’s continued growth under the stewardship of Penske Entertainment and will continue to play an active role supporting the sport’s success, growing the global fan base and implementing our sustainability agenda to deliver on environmental and social commitments, including progressing diversity and inclusion in the industry.”
