IndyCar: McLaren pursued Andretti Autosport partnership, Alexander Rossi

By Asher Fair | Aug 2, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 28: Alexander Rossi, driver of the /

Before Alexander Rossi re-signed with Andretti Autosport for the 2020 IndyCar season and beyond, McLaren pursued him through a potential partnership with the team.

Last Saturday, Alexander Rossi put to bed all of the speculation that he might leave Andretti Autosport upon the conclusion of the 2019 IndyCar season by signing a multi-year contract extension with the team to continue driving the #27 Honda.

The 27-year-old Nevada City, California native has driven the #27 Honda since the start of the 2018 season, and he spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons driving the #98 Andretti Herta Autosport Honda before swapping seats with Marco Andretti.

There were rumors that Rossi may leave Andretti Autosport to become Team Penske’s fourth driver next season, but Team Penske president Tim Cindric stated that he and his father Pieter, who also serves as his agent, were not interested because Team Penske would become a four-car team, a sentiment that team owner Roger Penske echoed.

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With all things considered, Rossi was never going to end up signing with a team other than Andretti Autosport or Team Penske.

However, there was another option that pertained to the former while also involving a separate team.

McLaren have been pursuing a full-time entry in IndyCar for a few years now, and every year around this time, the rumors about them entering the series in a full-time capacity have pretty much become inevitable. That hasn’t changed this year.

However, to this day, a full-time entry hasn’t materialized for the team.

McLaren made their long-awaited return to the Indianapolis 500 in 2017 following their 38-year hiatus from the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, and they did so via a partnership with Andretti Autosport.

At the time, they were running Honda engines in Formula 1, and their partnership with Andretti Autosport allowed them to field the #29 Honda for two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso.

As for McLaren entering IndyCar on a full-time basis, the team reportedly contacted Andretti Autosport team owner Michael Andretti with a multi-million dollar offer to form a partnership for the 2020 season prior to Rossi signing his new multi-year contract extension.

According to RACER’s Robin Miller, here is what Andretti had to say about the matter.

"“It was a substantial offer. But there wasn’t a firm commitment, and the timing of everything…we had to make a move. We have a great relationship with [McLaren CEO] Zak [Brown] and McLaren, and if they end up with somebody else it’s going to kill me, because we’ve spent so much time and effort trying to make it happen. But unfortunately we couldn’t make it work with their relationship with the manufacturer, so it didn’t work out.”"

Because of how their relationship in Formula 1 deteriorated over the course of the three-year stint from the 2015 season to the 2017 season, there is bad blood between McLaren and Honda, and the latter remain unwilling to supply engines to the former, not even in IndyCar, to this day.

Whether or not that will ever change is anybody’s guess.

This was evidenced in this year’s Indy 500 when McLaren were forced to go with Chevrolet engines before Alonso ultimately failed to qualify for the race. As a result, they couldn’t form a technical alliance with Andretti Autosport and instead formed one with the Chevrolet-powered Carlin team, a team that only had one of their three drivers qualify for the race.

Unfortunately for McLaren, in addition to re-signing Rossi, Andretti Autosport also extended their contract with Honda via a multi-year extension, effectively making a partnership with the British outfit impossible for next year.

As for how we know this news about McLaren giving Andretti an offer has anything to do with Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay was already under contract with Andretti Autosport through the 2020 season, as was Zach Veach.

Marco Andretti, meanwhile, signed a multi-year contract with Andretti Autosport last August, and he is now a partner in his own entry. Like Hunter-Reay and Veach, he isn’t going anywhere after this year, either. Simply put, this McLaren-Andretti Autosport partnership would have been for nobody but the hottest then-free agent on the market.

As for McLaren’s future in IndyCar, don’t rule them out for a full-time entry next year just yet.

The latest rumors involve the Woking-based team potentially forming a partnership with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and fielding two cars on a full-time basis in the 2020 season, including one for Harding Steinbrenner Racing rookie sensation Colton Herta.

But the same engine manufacturer hurdle exists here as well. Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports are a Honda-powered team, and they are under contract with the Japanese engine manufacturer through the 2020 season. Additionally, one of their drivers, Honda commercial regular James Hinchcliffe, is under contract with the team through next season as well.

Knowing how the McLaren Silly Season sagas typically go, don’t doubt that more rumors will surface in the near future. Eventually, one of them might just come to fruition.

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Despite them not being able to form a partnership with Andretti Autosport for the 2020 IndyCar season, will McLaren finally join the series in a full-time capacity next year? If so, will they do so via a partnership, and if so, with which team will they partner? If not, when will they join the series, if at all? Will Honda ever welcome them back?