Zak Brown explains why he chose to attend Washington D.C. IndyCar race over Dutch GP

McLaren Racing CEO had his eyes on Zandvoort while in Washington D.C., but of course, he can’t be in two places at once.

Brown joined Will Buxton for a interview with SPEED this past week, where he explained why he decided to attend the first-of-its-kind IndyCar race over the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, where McLaren ultimately claimed pole and victory with Lando Norris.

“So 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

Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren

Brown also noted the commercial impact of the IndyCar race, which featured several prominent business leaders (as well as the president of the United States). FOX later reported that the Freedom 250 Grand Prix was the most-watched non-Indy 500 race for IndyCar since 1995, averaging over 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 Lando Norris went on to win the Dutch Grand Prix from pole position, Arrow McLaren just missed out on the IndyCar win in D.C. with Christian Lundgaard finishing second to race winner Kyle Kirkwood. Lundgaard’s McLaren teammates Nolan Siegel and Pato O’Ward finished sixth and 16th, respectively.

Brown later praised the event, believing it to be a tremendous success. 
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