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McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown achieved massive success in Formula 1 last year, winning the 2024 Constructors;' Championship for McLaren in over 25 years. Now he wants to hit the same level of success with their IndyCar program. Arrow McLaren recently named 2004 IndyCar champion Tony Kanaan as the official new team principal and Zak Brown has already set his sights on consistently competing at the top.
Tony Kanaan had already been acting as the team’s de facto boss after Gavin Ward stepped aside in 2024. He was then named the Deputy Team Principal after the end of the season. It is only now that the team has officially announced him as the new TP. Another change in leadership is the arrival of Kevin Thimjon as the new team President. The news was shared on X by Arrow McLaren on February 21, with a post saying:
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"Tony Kanaan steps into the role of Team Principal, and Kevin Thimjon is set to join our team as President, leading business operations at Arrow McLaren."
Zak Brown has already mentioned several times just how good Tony Kanaan is not just as a former driver but also as a leader. A recent post on X by @IndyCarHub shared Brown's latest reaction to Tony being named the new team principal.
"Under Tony's leadership, the team has been moving forward quickly, and he and Kevin will work well together to keep that positive momentum up. Our sights are set on how we stabilize and grow strategically while competing at the top," Brown shared.
Recently, Brown also touched upon a broader issue within IndyCar of how teams unveil their new cars.
Zak Brown urges IndyCar to up its car launch game
Unlike F1 teams, which hold highly publicized launch events each year, IndyCar teams typically do not follow the same practice. However, PREMA Racing, the newest team in IndyCar, broke that trend this year and Zak Brown believes other teams should also do the same.
Ahead of its maiden IndyCar season, PREMA held a car launch event on January 10 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event included media members, industry leaders, and potential partners and was also streamed live on YouTube for fans to watch.
Zak Brown recently noted that more IndyCar teams should follow this approach. However, he also pointed out that these events need to have meaningful content beyond just a paint scheme reveal. Speaking to Racer, he said:
"Yeah, we definitely need to do that. But that also comes with getting some new equipment every once in a while. Because right now, there’s nothing super exciting about a new livery… because it’s just livery. But I think what PREMA did, which I saw, I thought was very good. We’ve done our version of that, and I think there’s more we can take from what other series are doing with their launches. We need to do more."
The 2025 NTT IndyCar season will kick off next Sunday, March 2, with the St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
