McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown is confident putting together a “very experienc𝔍ed team” for its entry to the Indianapolis 500 in May with Fernando Alonso.

McLaren announced in November that it would be returning to the Indy 500 in 2019 with a🍃n in-hoꦗuse entry, having partnered with Andretti Autospor🌺t fo🐼r its latest appearance at the race two years ago.

Ex-Force In♏dia Formula 1 deputy chief Bob Fernley has been hire🍨d to oversee McLaren’s IndyCar interests, with Brown stressing the importance of building an experienced and knowledgeable team gi⛎ven the pressur♏es of the race.

“Indianapolis is a difficult place that bites if you get it wrong,”ꦰ Brown said at Autosport International last week. “We’ve seen Rahal not qualify there before, Penske not qualify, Schmidt Peterson last year with [James] Hinchcliffe, so you’ve got to get your baseline right.

“We’re trying to think about winning the race a꧒s oppose to not qualifying foꦦr it but those are the two different extremes.

“We’ve got Gil de Ferran, who’s won the race a couple of times and ran a team, so he obviously has a wealth of experience. Bob Fernl༒ey, who’s responsible for putting it all together, he’s been back at Indy in the good old days, but he was brought in because he’s a really good operator and knows his way around Indy. He’s in charge of making sure we hire all the right people.”

Brown is eager to draw on experience from both within the team’s existing operations andﷺ the IndyCar paddock itself, with some of the figures involved in Alonso’s 2ꦇ017 entry set to work with the Spaniard once again.

“We’ve yet to announce the individuals, but 💞the engineer has won the Indianapolis 500 four times in about the last 15 years. He’s very current,” Brown said.

“We’ve got crew chief that was on Fernando’s car in 2017, Michael [Andretti] was kind enough to let him ﷺjoin us, so we’ve got a very experienced team using some of the hands that we have at McLaren.

“We have people who put their hands up and said t🍷hey would like to be involved in IndyCar or 🌌have been in the past.

“I’m confident it’s going to be very difficult, but I’m also very confident that we are going about it in the right way to give Ferna🎉ndo a chance to win.”

Alonso’s appearance at the Indy 500 will see him bid to becꩲome only the second driver in history to complete the ‘triple crown of motorsport’, having previously won both the Monaco Grand Prix and theꩵ 24 Hours of Le Mans.