Will Buxton has revealed Zak Brown gave him a three-word answer as he discussed a potential move from Formula 1 to IndyCar with the McLaren chief.

Buxton announced earlier this month that after two decades in Formula 1, he would be swapping series to head up Fox Sports’ IndyCar coverage for the 2025 season.

Will Buxton is off to IndyCar for the 2025 season

Rumours had swirled that the journalist and broadcaster, who had been part of F1TV’s coverage since 2018, had been set for a move to IndyCar before confirmation came that he would join the Fox team for the upcoming IndyCar series.

Buxton has been confirmed as the play-by-play commentator for the 17-race 2025 season.

“This is a massive sliding doors moment, and the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come around very often,” he told The Race. “And it’s very much taking that leap. It’s scary, really scary. I’m not going to shy away from that.”

The 43-year-old revealed that IndyCar race winner and F1TV analyst James Hinchcliffe played a big role in his move as he was the one who told Buxton that “your name came up” in a meeting with Fox.

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“I never imagined in a million years that there would be an opportunity to switch full-time to IndyCar,” he continued.

“But it became really clear really quickly that there was this amazing opportunity, and the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come around twice. If I turned it down now, I don’t know if it ever would have appeared again.”

Having spoken with Fox’s higher-ups, Buxton then sought advice from others including outgoing IndyCar commentator Leigh Diffey and McLaren CEO Zak Brown.

Brown, he says, laid it out for him in just three words.

“I said to Zak: ‘I think IndyCar can be incredible, but do you believe that the growth potential is there? And, from everything you’ve heard from Fox, are they as serious as they seem about it?’” Buxton said.

“Zak replied with a text message that was three words, and it just said: ‘F**king do it!’ That was literally all I needed to know.”

Buxton, who previously declared IndyCar has the “greatest racing on earth”, believes the American single-seater series has the potential for massive growth.

“Fox is renowned stateside as doing things a bit differently,” added Buxton. “They’re all about being bold. They’re all about taking chances.

“But the biggest thing is they want to tell stories. They want to make heroes of these drivers, and they want to grow the sport and place it firmly where, I believe, it should be in the United States.

“There’s no reason why IndyCar shouldn’t be the most popular form of motorsport here, and that means making it bigger than NASCAR.

“Will that take time? Absolutely. But that’s why they’ve assembled the group that they have.”

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