By Luke John-Buckle
Chief Executive of McLaren Racing Zak Brown said that challenging for the IndyCar championship is “priority number one.”
Arrow McLaren SP are welcoming 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi to the team as they expand to three cars this year.
Brown said at an Arrow McLaren press conference to PitDebrief and other media that competing for the Astor Cup is the main goal.
“First thing is we want our three drivers to compete for the championship this year in IndyCar. That’s priority number one.”
The 51-year-old is is highly ambitious ahead of the season opener at St. Pete and is anticipating Arrow McLaren racing cars capable of winning the championship.
“We’re going to field very competitive racing cars with aspirations for them all being in a position to win races and compete for the championship.”
The American also warned that the outfit is relatively inexperienced and they’ve recruited a lot of people over the winter.
“We are still a pretty young team, especially with onboarding. The amount of people that we’ve onboarded over the winter will take some time to work through the experience of working together.”
Arrow McLaren will field a fourth car at the Indy 500 driven by the 2013 winner Tony Kanaan.
The Brazilian will run the number 66 car as he looks for his second victory at the Brickyard.
Brown praised Kanaan’s maturity: “he’s (Kanaan) got a lot of experience. He’s won the race, as has the guy sitting to my left (Rossi).”
Rossi is delighted to be joining McLaren after making the switch from Andretti Autosport. The American driver explained it’s very important to get the basics right this season.
“It’s very important to make sure that we dot our Is and cross our Ts, but at the same tie show what McLaren is all about.
“It’s a huge honour (to drive for McLaren).” There’s a lot of extra eyeballs that are on the organisation because of the name and then the brand that’s associated with it.”
