McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown chose to attend IndyCar’s first Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C., rather than the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, despite McLaren ultimately securing pole position and victory with Lando Norris.
Speaking to Will Buxton in an interview with SPEED, Brown explained that his decision was based on where he could have the greatest commercial impact across McLaren’s racing operations.
“I’d like to be at both, but I’ve not been able to figure that out,” said Brown. “So, I use my double-triple top-secret laptop to dial into Holland. My role is to go where I can have the most impact on our racing teams, where’s the most commercial activity, the biggest growth for the different racing series we’re in and the teams.
“And this race is epic. I’ve not seen anything like it, so I needed to be here, and fortunately, when you have a great group of people, reality is — don’t tell anyone — but our three racing teams can survive just fine when I don’t make a race weekend.
“Witnessed the pole Lando has in Holland (interview took place before race day), so it’s a little bit more difficult for me to take credit for that. I’ve told my three guys (in IndyCar), someone needs to have a pole here so I can take credit for it here.”
The commercial impact of IndyCar’s Washington race
The IndyCar event attracted several prominent business leaders, as well as the president of the United States. FOX later reported that the Freedom 250 Grand Prix was IndyCar’s most-watched non-Indy 500 race since 1995, averaging more than 3.2 million viewers.
“At the end of the day, that’s why I’m here,” said Brown. “We’ve got great partners in Holland, but this is new, so we have a lot of first-time partners here, a lot of prospects here, the attention that this has brought to IndyCar, the NTT IndyCar Series is awesome, and so, I had to be here. It’s kind of a no-brainer.”
While Norris went on to win the Dutch Grand Prix from pole position, Arrow McLaren narrowly missed out on victory in Washington. Christian Lundgaard finished second behind race winner Kyle Kirkwood, while McLaren teammates Nolan Siegel and Pato O’Ward placed sixth and 16th, respectively.
Brown later praised the Washington event and described it as a tremendous success.
Photo by: Penske Entertainment
