McLaren Racing announced today the confirmation of ownership of NTT IndyCar Series team Arrow McLaren SP with 75% majority shareholding, officially putting the team under the McLaren Racing banner, a deal first announced at the Music City Grand Prix in August.
The team will now be run with a five-person board including AMSP owners Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson, along with three representatives of McLaren, all chaired by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. Taylor Kiel, the current president of AMSP, will be responsible for the team’s operations and report directly to Brown and the board.
The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
McLaren have been partnered with the team formerly known as Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports since 2020, and experienced tremendous growth and success. Young star Pato O’Ward has been the highlight, finishing third in the championship this past season while collecting two wins from five podium finishes, eight top-five finishes and three pole positions.
Aside from their partnership with Schmidt-Peterson, McLaren have a history in IndyCar that spans over 50 years. During the 1970s, they amassed 28 victories including three Indianapolis 500 victories. Their first victory in the event came in 1972 with Mark Donohue, while Johnny Rutherford won two Borg Warner trophies with the team in 1974 and 1976, before the manufacturer left the sport in 1979.
They returned 38 years later for the 2017 Indy 500 with Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso behind the wheel, who led 21 laps before his engine gave way. The Spaniard took one more shot at “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” in 2019, but was unable to qualify.
McLaren Racing are most famously known for their exploits in Formula 1, where they have won 20 world championships, and will be competing in Extreme E in 2022.
O’Ward and his teammate Felix Rosenqvist will take to the track for the newly-owned team starting on 27 February 2022 at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.