Brown: New McLaren setup ensures no repeat of Indy 500 mistakes

Zak Brown is confident McLaren’s new setup for its IndyCar programme in 2020 will ensure it avoids repeating the mistakes that led to its failed attempt to enter the Indianapolis 500 this year.

McLaren failed to qualify for the Indy 500 after qualifying outside the top 33 with Fernando Alonso, having entered a single car to the race in a technical partnership with Carlin.

McLaren announced earlier this month it would be returning to IndyCar full-time in 2020, linking up with the existing Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team.

McLaren Racing CEO Brown took confidence in the existing platform SPM has with its two-car programme, ensuring there will be no repeat of the Indy 500 disappointment.

“We certainly made a lot of mistakes in Indianapolis this year, and as I told everyone on the racing team, mistakes are okay as long as you learn from them and you don't make the same one twice,” Brown said.

“We always had a desire to compete on a full-time basis, and the way we did it in 2019 was kind of the start of ramping up. However, it's very obvious that that's not the right way to do it.

“What we are able to put in place for Sam [Schmidt, SPM co-owner] will give us that full-time presence, and will give us that platform to ensure that we're competitive and don't repeat the mistakes we made, which really was showing up with a part-time effort and a part-time crew that worked extremely hard.

"But Indianapolis is a tough place to show up for anybody on a part-time basis, and so what we structured here with Sam we think ticks a lot of the boxes of the technical aspects and the commercial aspects that enabled us to go ahead and commit.

"I think the view of my board was either let's be all-in or all-out, and all the reasons we have wanted to do IndyCar the last couple years, have remained, regardless of our defeat at Indianapolis.

“We're racers, so you're going to hit the wall every once in a while. You have to dust yourself off and go back at it."