Zak Brown reveals the untold story behind Fernando Alonso’s Indy 500 pursuit

Back in 2017, McLaren was struggling. The Formula 1 team had slipped into backmarker status, and driver Fernando Alonso was losing patience. That’s when CEO Zak Brown proposed an idea that changed everything: Let’s race the Indianapolis 500.

The audacious decision to skip the Monaco Grand Prix in favor of Indy became a definitive moment for what Brown hoped McLaren’s racing operations could become under his leadership — and he shared the untold story of that first Indy 500 decision in a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download.

Zak Brown: “I kind of threw it out there as a joke”

Zak Brown was the most recent guest on the Dale Jr. Download podcast, a show hosted by former NASCAR racer and current motorsport pundit Dale Earnhardt Jr.

When Brown took charge of McLaren’s racing operations, the team only competed in Formula 1 — and it was struggling. The World Champions racing for the team couldn’t coax performance out of the ill-handling F1 machinery, and things weren’t looking good for McLaren.

Things have since drastically evolved. McLaren is now a legitimate title contender in Formula 1, but it also boasts full-time operations in IndyCar, Formula E, and Extreme E.

Brown credits that evolution in part to his leadership team.

“It starts with my leadership team, because I won’t take anything to the board that I don’t have buy-in from my team,” Brown said on the Dale Jr. Download.

“I’ve got 10 people that report to me.

“I’ve got someone who runs the F1 team, someone who runs the IndyCar team, someone who runs what we call electric racing, and then, of course, my commercial department, CFO, etc.

“And ultimately, if I’ve got a kind of crazy idea, or any idea for that matter, I’ll put it in front of them: What do you guys think? Think we should do it? Think it’ll be a success?”

But Brown told Earnhardt Jr. that he already knows the answer; in fact, it was the primary piece of advice one of his chairmen gave him while integrating into McLaren: Don’t bring anything to the boaord that you don’t already have the answer to.

To guarantee a “yes,” Brown stated that he ensures that his ideas all come with a viable business plan, as every racing team must stand on its own two feet.

“We’re in business,” he said.

“We don’t get money from the McLaren Group, like a Mercedes or a big OEM.

“So I’ve got to make sure the IndyCar team can stand on its own two feet. So I’ve got to make sure everything has a business to it.”

And sometimes, business can be crazy. It’s what encouraged him to consider the idea of missing Monaco in 2017 in order to take part in the Indianapolis 500.

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“The first time I kind of tested that was a pretty crazy idea when, in my first year, we were really struggling with Fernando, and I said, why don’t we pull Fernando out of Monaco and put him in the Indy 500?” Brown shared on the Dale Jr. Download.

“Everyone thought I was nuts. I even kind of thought I was a bit nuts — but they totally supported it.”

Why? Well, Brown noted that McLaren was expecting to finish between 15th and 17th position in Monaco back in 2017. If Fernando Alonso wasn’t going to be able to secure some coveted points for the team, then why not find a better, more lucrative way to spend that Sunday?

The Indy 500 ploy was audacious — but it was massive. Brown recalled the decision being “huge news,” because it was; it was seemingly unthinkable for a modern Formula 1 driver to skip a Grand Prix in order to compete in an oval race, even if it was the Indy 500.

But Brown said it wasn’t a guaranteed hit.

“It was funny the way that it went down with Fernando,” he mused.

“I kind of threw it out there as a joke. And then we had dinner, I think it was in China, and then he started asking a lot of questions, and I’m like, I think I might have caught myself in a little bit of trouble here. He might want to do this thing.

“We left dinner, and his manager said to me, now he’s gonna sleep on it, he’s not gonna wanna do it.

“Then he came up the next morning and went, ‘Let’s do it.’

“I was like, ‘Oh man, I’ve gotta figure out how to put this together.’”

Brown found a way. He partnered with Honda and Andretti to field a car for Alonso at the 2017 Indianapolis 500, and the Spaniard led laps before retiring on Lap 179 with an engine issue.

Brown, McLaren, and Alonso went out on a limb to make that 2017 Indy 500 entry happen — and it turned out to be a pivotal moment in defining just what Zak Brown wanted McLaren to look like under his tenure.

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