After a successful high-profile visit to the Indycar round at Barber Motorsports Park with Fernando Alonso, McLaren chief Zak Brown wants to see his team competing at the Indianapolis 500 on an annual basis.
Alonso will miss the Monaco Grand Prix this year to focus on his Indy 500 foray with McLaren Andretti Autosports powered by Honda.
Speaking to media in Alabama, Brown said, “I would like to see McLaren-Honda competing at Indianapolis every year. Originally I thought this was an idea we could pursue in 2018.
“Given the circumstances of how we are running in Formula 1 right now, and Fernando’s desire and our desire, and Honda’s desire, this created a very, very small window of opportunity that we jumped on.”
“McLaren is a big fan of IndyCar racing, we think it’s fantastic motorsports and I’ve personally been around it my whole life so I’m very excited on a personal level to be here.”
“I’d like to see McLaren here on a more regular basis. And would we do it with Fernando again? Absolutely. I hope that we have the problem of Monaco and Indy in the same weekend and we are fighting for the championship.”
“So what happens in 2018? We’ll have to wait and see, because obviously we’re working very hard to get Fernando and Stoffel Vandoorne a much more competitive [F1] car than we are producing right now.”
Alonso himself is keen to be a regular fixture at the Brickyard, “Whatever the result we will achieve on the Sunday, we will think together what is the future from that point.”
“I’m very open. If I want to to be the most complete driver in the world or the best driver in the world, then I want to experience all the different cars and different driving techniques, and I need to adapt and grow up as a driver.
“And if I want to do that, I need to win it and if it’s not this year then we need to plan it for the next event,” added Alonso.