Zak Brown: F1 will always be priority for McLaren Racing despite triple crown push

Zak Brown has insisted that Formula 1 will always be the centre of the McLaren Racing “universe” as he laid out his triple crown goal.

McLaren currently competes in F1, IndyCar, and Formula E, and will soon join the World Endurance Championship. The Woking outfit has had a strong start to 2025. The F1 team leads the constructors’ championship by 299 points ahead of the summer break, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris’s dominant start to the season.

The success has continued into the IndyCar team. Pato O’Ward currently sits second in the drivers’ standings.

“We’re a Formula 1 team, we’re an IndyCar team, currently a Formula E team, and now going to become a World Endurance Championship team, which is Le Mans,” Brown explained on How Leaders Lead With David Novak.

“Obviously, the centre of our universe is Formula 1 and always will be. However, North America is one of, if not the most important market for most companies – huge fan base, great economy.

“And until Formula 1 took off in North America, we wanted to have a competitive difference to our other Formula 1 rivals with our fan base and with our corporate partners, and have a bigger presence in North America. Even though Formula 1 is taking off in North America, we still want to be bigger in North America than our competition. That’s kind of the rationale behind why we’re in IndyCar racing.

“The World Endurance Championship, which is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we’ve just announced entry into – we’re going to go into it in 2027. That’s where all the automotive sports car manufacturers play. You see our competitors: the Ferraris, the Lamborghinis, the Aston Martins, the Porsches, and it’s a natural racing series for us to really collaborate closely with our automotive business. So that’s why we’re in the World Endurance Championship.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Brown revealed the team’s goal of attempting the triple crown again, which involves winning the Indy 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the F1 Monaco Grand Prix.

“You put those three together, you have what’s called the triple crown, which we’re the only team to have ever won – the Indy 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Monaco Grand Prix. But we did it in different eras, so kind of in different eras of our brand.

“We now are the only team in the world racing in those three huge – really the three biggest – racing series. And so that offers us diversity of opportunity with fans, geographies, technologies, and for our corporate partners.”