As the IndyCar Series prepares for a new era with FOX Sports as its broadcast partner beginning in 2025, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has expressed some ideas that could enhance the overall experience for viewers.
This weekend’s season finale at Nashville Superspeedway marks the end of a run with NBC Sports, which has been the exclusive home of North America’s premier open-wheel championship since 2019 - and among the family of networks for the series for nearly two decades.
The move to FOX Sports is encouraging for a number of reasons, among them the fact every round next year will be on the main network, with the majority of Indy NXT rounds shown on FS1.
Eric Shanks, the CEO of FOX Sports, is someone that is “very passionate about IndyCar”, according to Brown. And uniquely, there is some familiarity between the two when Shanks was running DirecTV roughly 20 years ago, he was one of Brown’s clients prior to his current role overseeing McLaren’s operations that extend to Formula 1 and IndyCar with Arrow McLaren, among others.
What Brown wants to see from FOX/IndyCar deal
Looking ahead, Brown sees an opportunity for broadcasts to have a new presentation and take the sport to a new level.
“I’d like to see a lot more data,” Brown told Motorsport.com. “I think the Formula 1 broadcast is pretty awesome and a lot of that was driven by David Hill, who used to be the boss at FOX, who Eric Shanks worked with for a long time. I wouldn’t want to say that Eric has called him a mentor because I’ve never heard him say that, but I suspect he is a bit of because David was before Eric.
“So, if a starting point is you look at an F1 broadcast, I think we need to be there. What do I mean by that? I think the way they use sectors makes it easier to understand what’s going on. I think the way they do tires.”
Brown noted he felt there hasn’t been a clear delivery on explaining the differences between the impact of the red sidewall (softer alternate tires) and black sidewall (harder primary compound).
“You know, I constantly hear over here, red and blacks,” Brown continued. “Talk to me in lap time. Talk to me in reds are going to go off in 10 laps and the blacks are gonna go 20 laps; tell me what that means as a viewer, not just that they are on reds or on blacks. And then Formula 1 does the forecasting of, ‘He’s gonna catch this driver in six laps — the overcut/undercut. So, all that content. Otherwise, you kind of watch a race and it’s a bit, ‘He’s on reds, he’s on blacks.’ Tell me what that means; reds gonna catch him in five laps, but if he doesn’t the tires are going to start falling off after six laps. Like, what does that mean? I know what that means, but I don’t think the common viewer knows what that means, so I’d like to see a lot more technology, strategy - which you see in a Formula 1 broadcast.”
And one of the other elements to explore improving is the broadcast window.
“The length is better (in F1),” Brown said.
“Too often it’s like we’re running late because we’ve had too many yellows, so the interview with the winner is like bang and then you’re over. You know, drivers are the stars. Don’t cram an hour and 59 minutes of content in two hours because the minute you’re a minute late, you’re not finishing the story. So, the fact it’s been expanded, I think, is great, so you can have a little bit more pregame/postgame build up and get to know the drivers; not be so rushed. So, I think if you start there, you’ll have a lot better television product.”
