Is McLaren ready to join list of perennial IndyCar season and Indy 500 favorites?

The NTT IndyCar Series features many competitors, but when it comes to title favorites, the odds always seem to be in the trio of Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Andretti Autosport.

But over the past few seasons, a fourth team has emerged as a legitimate title contender - Arrow McLaren.

The long-time F1 entrant’s return to Indy car racing came in 2020 when the team signed an agreement to purchase a 75% stake of Schmidt Peterson Racing. The following season, the rebranded team collected its first win with Pato O’Ward at Texas and followed up with another victory at Detroit. O’Ward went on to finish a respectable third in the overall point standings and was in the championship hunt all the way to the end.

Two more wins came in 2022, and the team made perhaps what was the biggest move in silly season when it signed veteran Alexander Rossi, who had amicably parted ways with Andretti Autosport.

Joining O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist for the ‘23 campaign, Rossi looks to return to past status as a title favorite after a rough past three seasons with Andretti. And with his addition, the team looks stronger than ever entering what could just be their best season in IndyCar to date, starting with Sunday's season-opening race on the temporary street course in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“There's a huge amount of obvious performance that's synonymous with the team,” Rossi said of McLaren. “And for us as individuals that are a part of it, it's up to us to raise our game on and off the track to represent the brand. There's a huge privilege that comes with that, but also responsibility.

“I'm very excited to be able to call McLaren home and look forward to pretty cool things we're going to be able to accomplish together.”

Already in preseason testing, Rossi has noticed differences between the McLaren Chevy engine package and the Honda engines he previously used with Andretti. Rossi said he already has a very clear understanding of what is better and what is worse, and he hopes to work with the team to be ready for a strong debut at St. Petersburg.

“I think it's very public knowledge that Team Chevy and the teams that had Chevy engines worked really hard in the off-season 2021 and 2022 to close the gap of what the Chevy drivers felt like they were missing compared to the others,” Rossi said. “I think that was obviously proven last year with winning the drivers and manufacturers championship.”

Should Rossi (or any of McLaren’s IndyCar drivers) win the Indy 500 come May, it would be another prestigious victory for the team. But it would not be their first.

McLaren previously competed at the Brickyard in the 1970s, picking up two wins in the 500 with Johnny Rutherford in 1974 and ‘76. Today's team also looks to bring some of its racing knowledge from F1 to the IndyCar team. However, CEO Zak Brown knows that while similar to F1, IndyCar is still a different beast.

“I think we always have to be careful to think that bringing Formula 1 is some sort of magic to IndyCar racing,” Brown said. "IndyCar racing is as competitive as any form of racing I've ever seen.

“That being said, we do have aspects of our Formula 1 technology and know-how that we will ultimately long-term be beneficial to our INDYCAR teams.”

Brown has closely watched Rossi’s racing career and development for a long time, and believes the California native, who won the 100th Running of the Indy 500 as a rookie in 2016, will make a perfect addition to the team.

“I've been following Alex prior to being in Formula 1,” Brown said. “Alex and I first met in England. When we looked at Alex, alongside Felix and Pato, we thought it was the perfect complement of speed, experience and kind of global knowledge of motorsports. We think Alex will bring a lot to the table for what is still a pretty young team.”

Team excited for addition of Kanaan to Indy 500 lineup

When it comes to Indy 500 entries, fans have become accustomed to expecting a big star joining McLaren for “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

McLaren brought Formula One star Fernando Alonso to Indy in 2017, 2019 and 2020, and next year, NASCAR champion Kyle Larson joins the team in a collaboration with Hendrick Motorsports. Current McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris has also expressed interest in running Indy someday, so perhaps he’ll eventually drive for the team at the Brickyard in the future.

But this year’s Indy-only entrant for McLaren is no stranger to the speedway. In fact, he’s both a fan favorite and a former winner of the 500.

2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan will look to make his 22nd consecutive start in the 500 when he joins the team for the month of May. While he has not raced in the series full-time since 2019, Kaanan has shown he can still put together a competitive run at Indy, including finishing third in last year’s 500.

“Tony, he's super experienced, very capable, no doubts that he'll be straight up to speed,” said McLaren Racing Director Gavin Ward. “For us, with a growing team, that's an obvious choice for us to put in the car and build out our depth for the biggest race of the year, the biggest race in the world, that would be the obvious one.”

Kanaan was one of the first drivers Rosenqvist met when he came to IndyCar in 2019, and the Swede sees the addition of the veteran driver as nothing but a positive.

“If we all want to do well, we're all going to have to work very closely together,” Rosenqvist said. “I think that's already in the mentality with me, Pato and Alex. We don't really hide anything. I think adding Tony, he will definitely be onboard with that.

“He won the race. He's had a lot of success there. He finished between me and Pato last year in P3. So, yeah, looking forward to having him.”