Zak Brown says McLaren “wouldn’t hesitate” to give its IndyCar drivers Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew a Formula 1 test in the future, and that he has discussed the prospect with the young pairing.
McLaren has partnered with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to create Arrow McLaren SP for 2020, the F1 outfit’s first regular involvement in IndyCar since the 1970s.
Aligning with its F1 policy, the squad chose young drivers in O’Ward and Askew – the previous two Indy Lights feeder series champions – to spearhead its 2020 campaign.
Last weekend O’Ward scored the team’s best result with pole position and a second-place finish in the second race at Road America.
Brown said the COVID-19 situation has complicated things like testing schedules, but that its two IndyCar drivers haven’t been ruled out for an F1 chance in the future.
“We’ve spoken about it, briefly, obviously, we would imagine they would like to have a go!” said Brown when asked about the prospect by The Race.
“Depending on what the testing schedule looks like – obviously this year has been thrown into a crazy situation.
“We need them to focus on IndyCar. But certainly, if the opportunity arises and it makes sense I wouldn’t hesitate to give both of them a go in a Formula 1 car.
“But for right now, we need to focus on the job at hand.”
Askew impressed with a top 10 on his IndyCar Series debut at Texas – despite the whole event being condensed into one day as the season opener in June – and then starred in qualifying at Indianapolis before crashing out while pushing on worn tyres on his road course debut.
O’Ward narrowly missed out on a top 10 on his Arrow McLaren SP debut at Texas, but followed that with a pair of top 10s and narrowly missed out on victory as his tyres went away in the closing stages of the second Road America race, beaten on the penultimate lap after a thrilling wheel-banging exchange with eventual winner Felix Rosenqvist.
The team has gone through wholesale changes in the off-season, switching from Honda to Chevrolet with the arrival of McLaren, while the latter’s experience has been utilised with a small team set-up at the squad’s Surrey headquarters, led by double Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran.
Since McLaren made its substantial IndyCar commitment, the coronavirus pandemic has triggered financial upheaval in its wider company.
However, it has remained committed to the IndyCar project throughout, and Brown reckons that proves how seriously McLaren is taking its American programme.
“It’s very high on the priority list,” Brown said when asked by The Race.
“Once we commit to something, you can’t quit, even when you crash or don’t qualify or have some challenges.
“So you know when we commit to something – we’re committed and it’s extremely important.
“We had our financial challenges during COVID, fortunately those are now behind us so we’ve got some sponsor announcements coming, we’ve raised our funding and [are] very excited to be in Formula 1 and in IndyCar racing and we’re very committed to both forms of motor racing long-term.”
