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Brown wants an Indy500 return: “When we go back we want to do it as McLaren

Brown wants an Indy500 return: “When we go back we want to do it as McLaren"

25-05-2019 09:00 Last update: 09:34

McLaren's failure to get Fernando Alonso onto the Indy500 grid hasn't put CEO Zak Brown off from wanting to try again. He's so desperate to return, it's not if it's..."when we go back we want to do it as McLaren".

Alonso was hoping to find the third jigsaw piece to the triple crown this weekend, but won't even get the chance to race. A series of errors have let McLaren's Indy500 project down.

To highlight the severity, Alonso qualified in fifth place in the 2017 event and led for 27 laps. Brown explained the differences between 2017 and 2019 to RaceFans.

“Well, 2017 was a totally different programme. We partnered with Andretti, it was their car, it was primarily their people, so there it was more about ‘can Fernando get the job done?’ Which clearly he could have," Brown said.

“This year we went about it pretty much independent. Carlin was a much smaller resource for us, they weren’t running the car, it’s McLaren’s fault for not qualifying, so I think it’s pretty hard to compare the two because we didn’t race in a like-for-like scenario.”

The disaster hasn't put the team off. On Thursday, he told Sky Sports how everyone in the team wants to try again. Brown says he wants to go at McLaren but talks through a potential change in their approach.

“When we go back we want to do it as McLaren. So how much involvement we will potentially need from another team? Do we do a couple more races to get ready for Indy? That’s something that we’ve discussed," Brown said.

“We’ve got to step back and put it all on the table and look at everything and then it’s not ‘would we do this differently or that differently’. I think it’s a catalogue of things that we need to address.”

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