McLaren CEO believes the decision to enter IndyCar from 2020 will bring benefits to their Formula 1 operation.
Last month, the British team announced a collaboration with Arrow SPM to become full-time competitors in the American series for the first time since 1979.
This marked a natural next step in their participation having completed two attempts at the Indianapolis 500 with Fernando Alonso, with the entry also opening doors at McLaren where F1 might not.
“Returning to IndyCar enables us to offer more commercial opportunities to our partners in a very important market which F1 does not yet penetrate to the level I ultimately think it will do,” Brown said in an interview on the company’s official website.
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“This is about commercially differentiating ourselves from our competitors to help bring additional resources to our F1 team.
“It will have, and already has had an impact. It means we’re better positioned for partners coming into the sport.
“Take Arrow Electronics for example, it’s the title sponsor of our IndyCar team and a very important partner of our F1 team.”
By diversifying, McLaren is returning to their roots and other ventures are expected even if the priority remains clear.
“F1 will always be the pinnacle of motorsport and the pinnacle for McLaren Racing,” Brown stated.
“That being said, racing is in our DNA and we have a long history of competing in other forms of motorsport.
“We’ve got a great GT programme with McLaren Automotive, we’re now in IndyCar, and we see sportscar racing [WEC] as a possibility in the future.
“We’ll enter other forms of racing when we think it fits with our brand, complements our F1 team, and will result in success both commercially and on the track.”
