Brown: No Indycar project for McLaren in the near future

Fernando Alonso spearheaded a well publicised Indy foray last year under the McLaren and Andretti Autosports banner. The outing was a great success despite the fact that the Spaniard retired with an engine failure. he had led the legendary race, making his mark in the hearts and minds of US fans.

Brown admits he is a fan of Indycar but that's not his team's focus as they put behind them a miserable three years with Hinda and forge ahead as a Renault customer in an attempt to become a force in the sport once again.

The McLaren boss said, "I think the [Indycar] cars look great. I think the cars look really good, but [it's] too soon. With all that we've got going on in Formula 1, while the mechanics and engineers and all that are 100 percent focused.

"The minute me or Jonathan Neale or John Allert or Eric [Boullier] are not spending 100 percent of our time on Formula 1 that starts becoming a distraction for us."

"I've got to find more partners for our Formula 1 team, so any moment I'm trying to find an IndyCar team is a moment I'm not spending on trying to fund the Formula 1 team, which is priority number one.

"So I think before we leap into any of these other racing series, we've got to get back on the podium in F1. As a fan of McLaren and as a racer I want to do them all this year, but as a business we've got to lay out a 10-year strategy and why we're doing it, how we're doing it, how it's sustainable."

"With all that's going on, not only with our Formula 1 team but for Formula 1 as a whole, we need to be spending all our time on making sure whatever happens in 2021 we're in a good place. So I don't think any of those other series' are around the corner," explained Brown.