McLaren boss Zak Brown is hoping his team’s good luck continues across the Atlantic, as he jets from Monaco to Indianapolis on Sunday night. The CEO opted to remain in the Principality throughout the race weekend – where he watched Lando Norris storm to victory – instead of heading to the USA to support Arrow McLaren’s Indy 500 entrants as he’s done in previous years.
Brown celebrated Norris’ sixth career win, and Oscar Piastri’s P3 finish, on the podium alongside his drivers and second place-finisher Charles Leclerc.
“It was pretty much a perfect weekend, I couldn’t be happier. Monaco’s the big one,” he told Sky Sports, shortly before he was seen parading around the paddock with a magnum bottle of Moët & Chandon.
With the Indy 500 commencing just hours after Patrick Dempsey waved the chequered flag at the Monaco Grand Prix, Brown won’t catch any of the on-track action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
However, he’s hoping his Sunday is characterised by “a combination of champagne and milk.”
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images
McLaren’s Pato O’Ward qualified on the front row for the 200-lap race, followed by his team-mates Christian Lundgaard in P8 and Nolan Siegel in P24. Kyle Larson, who is also part of the team’s four-driver lineup for the 500, is attempting ‘the double’ by dashing to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600 once the flag flies in Indianapolis.
Their McLaren F1 teammates will be showing their support from afar, with Piastri telling reporters he’ll be watching the famed IndyCar race “from his couch.”
Norris, for his part, said he has “so much respect” for the drivers taking part.
“There’s a lot of incredibly talented drivers over there in America and some of them that could do very well in Formula 1,” he said, noting his former teammate, Robert Shwartzman, qualified on pole.
“It was pretty impressive. I was his teammate back in 2015 or 2016 in Formula Renault. To see him go on to do something like that is pretty cool, but it’s something I’ll never do.”
Leclerc echoed the sentiment, adding: “It’s a crazy race, I don’t think I will ever do it.”
However, there’s one race he wants to tick off his bucket list when his F1 career comes to an end. “I want to do Le Mans with my brother,” the Monegasque revealed.
