Zak Brown admits Fernando Alonso Indy 500 miss was his “worst experience”

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has revealed that failing to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 with two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso was one of the lowest moments of his professional career. 

The Woking outfit’s high-profile attempt to conquer the Brickyard with Alonso resulted in a shocking failure to make the historic grid. Speaking about the moment during the Autosport Business Exchange Miami, Brown acknowledged the difficult lessons learned that month ultimately shaped McLaren’s return to the IndyCar Series.

“Especially in the early days, big obstacles,” Brown recalled. “When I started my company, there were many times if the cheque didn’t show up on Thursday, payroll wasn’t going on Friday. You have to have a ‘never quit, failure is not an option’ attitude. 

“I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I’m fine with that. I always say to the team, mistakes are OK, just don’t make the same one twice. Because you learn from mistakes.

“Probably my biggest, most public one – because there’s been a lot, but the most public one was not qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 with Fernando Alonso, which at the time was the worst experience of my life.”

Rather than shy away from the humiliation, Brown took responsibility for the operational shortcomings that left the team on the sidelines of the iconic race.

“But I’m very proud of it, which sounds strange, but it’s because of how we leaned in, we learned from it,” he continued. “I owned it. It was, at the end of the day, my fault because I didn’t get the right pieces in place, the right people in place. I didn’t trust my instinct; all the things that I kind of preach, I let myself down on.

“So, I’m glad it happened because I won’t let that mistake happen again. Since then, we’ve finished second twice at the Indy 500, and we’ve crashed going for the lead. 

“I remember when we didn’t qualify, some people said, ‘Right, so you’re done now?’ I was like, ‘No, no, no, no. In racing, when you crash, you repair the car, you understand why you crashed, and you get right back in.’ That’s what you do in racing. So, that was certainly a big public one.”

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