"Fear of losing is bigger than everything": Tony Kanaan gets real about new Arrow McLaren role under Zak Brown

Arrow McLaren promoted Tony Kanaan to Team Principal just under two weeks before the 2025 IndyCar season began. This development came only four months after he was made deputy Team Principal by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. In a recent interview, the Brazilian addressed his working relationship with Brown.

As a driver whose IndyCar career spanned 25 years, Kanaan worked with stalwarts of the sports like Michael Andretti, AJ Foyt, Jimmy Vasser, and the late Kevin Kalkhoven, who was responsible for Champ Car and IRL's unification to form IndyCar, and also the owner of KV Racing technology.

When Tony Kanaan appeared on a recent episode of the Pit Pass Indy podcast released on Friday, host Bruce Martin asked him how his experiences with the four aforementioned legends helped him in working with Zak Brown, one of the biggest names in the managerial side of global motorsport. The 50-year-old replied:

"I know Zak for 30 years. I know Zak's expectations and the two names you mentioned (Vasser and Kalkhoven), those guys were obsessed with winning races and that's all they cared (about) at any cost. So to me, they helped me quite a bit because that's the mentality I had too."

The 2013 Indy 500 winner elaborated on how he and Brown share the same mentality for a racing team to succeed in the top level of motorsport.

"I think you gotta be a racer to be able to lead a team or a group because the obsession of winning... it's not just the winning. To me, the fear of losing is bigger than everything, and that's why you want to win at any cost. And Zak is like that. To me, it's just managing the pressure and how much the expectations that everybody has put on us," the 2004 IndyCar champ said.

Tony Kanaan joined Arrow McLaren in 2023 to run a one-off race, the 107th Indy 500, the last race of his IndyCar career. The British team retained him in an advisory role after that, and Team Principal is the sixth title he'll serve in under two years with them.

Tony Kanaan shares Arrow McLaren's "winning strategy" to conquer IndyCar under new leadership

Tony Kanaan with his family during a parade lap at the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

Besides announcing Tony Kanaan's promotion to Team Principal, the Zak Brown-led team also named veteran business executive Kevin Thimjon as team president.

In his official statement, Kanaan explained how the team has changed since driving for them at the 2023 Indy 500 and plans to revitalize the Men in Papaya with Thimjon and Brown.

"A lot has happened since my last Indy 500 less than two years ago, to say the least. I’ve embraced every opportunity to grow with the team and I’m excited to officially step into the Team Principal role, and having Kevin join to take on the business side of our team is part of our winning strategy," he said (via McLaren).

In 2025, the team has one of the youngest driver trios on the grid, with IndyCar's most popular driver, Pato O'Ward leading 20-year-old Nolan Siegel and 23-year-old Christian Lundgaard.

They kicked off the season with Lundgaard securing a spot in the Top 10 with a P8 finish. O'Ward, who had a terrible qualifying session and started P23 on the grid, made a stellar recovery to secure P11, winning the season's first 'Biggest Mover' award. Siegel's day, however, was one to forget as Will Power took him out in Turn 3 of lap 1.