“I love pressure” - Kanaan relishing Arrow McLaren IndyCar project

Credit: Aaron Skillman

Tony Kanaan is his own harshest critic. The present is never good enough and his mind is always drifting away to how things can be made better in the future. 

In many ways, it makes him the perfect candidate for his present role.

Less than two years removed from his final Indianapolis 500 appearance, he was rather thrust into the deep end as team principal at Arrow McLaren earlier this year. It has been a rapid ascent from special advisor, to sporting director, to team leader.

But it is in his nature to relish this kind of challenge.

“Since day one, I told the guys here that I love to be here,” Kanaan said in a media call on Thursday. “I don’t know everything. I don’t need to know everything. My job will be to motivate these people. The only way I’m going to motivate them is being here. 

“I have 13-14-hour-a-day days [at the workshop]. I was fortunate enough in my career throughout my success, I had very loyal people that, by default, are really good in what they do. They know where I stand, the way I push. They know my obsession of winning, the mentality of McLaren and what Zak [Brown, CEO] is expecting from this entire organisation.”

The 2025 season was Arrow McLaren’s best yet. Pato O’Ward ended the year a career-best second in the standings, with Christian Lundgaard’s fifth in his maiden campaign with the outfit rounding out the team’s finest collective season-long performance.

A total of 12 podiums between O’Ward and Lundgaard - six apiece but with two victories for O’Ward - also marked the highest single-season rostrum tally they have yet achieved.

But in spite of 2025 being the best year since the reintroduction of the McLaren name into the sport in 2020 and a very encouraging start for Kanaan at the helm, the Brazilian IndyCar icon leading the way was still dissatisfied that his team were not the best.

Credit: Julia Bissessar

There is perspective that this was a marked step forward, which it absolutely was. But that is with the 196-point margin back from runner-up O’Ward to dominant champion Álex Palou at the forefront of Kanaan’s mind.

“We had a great year, yes,” he conceded. “You can ask Tony Kanaan: Palou had a great year. We didn’t. We had an okay year and nobody else did. That’s the standard. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a good year. Let’s take the positives and we have to move forward. 

“My wife actually told me: ‘You know, you’re not very good at taking compliments.’ This guy sent me a text and I’m like: ‘Look at this.’ She said: ‘Are you not happy about it? I said: ‘It’s okay.’ She said: ‘Can you enjoy that?’ It’s a guy that’s been on the outside and came in and says: ‘Man, this is impressive.’”

Onboard in some capacity at the team since racing for them in the 2023 Indy 500, therefore with knowledge of the inner-workings, Kanaan stepped up as team principal off the back of an uncertain period for Arrow McLaren - both on the driver front and behind the scenes. 

The failure to sign Palou for 2024 was a notable factor in triggering instability within the team, which was only enhanced when David Malukas suffered a pre-season injury and was released by the end of April without having raced once. Callum Ilott and Théo Pourchaire both deputised, before Nolan Siegel was eventually brought on a multi-year basis. 

Lundgaard replaced the outgoing Alexander Rossi for 2025 and Arrow McLaren now enter next season with wholesale continuity in its youthful three-car lineup. At the same time, a lot of the improvement is also stemming from Kanaan-induced alterations and increased stability taking effect internally, whether in personnel or philosophy.

Credit: Joe Skibinski

“I’m not saying I brought better talent than we had here in the past,” he explained. “It needed a change, in my opinion, and that’s obviously I’m in charge. I’ve got to follow my instinct. We have to change the mentality, change the way we’re doing things. Because let’s face it, it was okay but the okay was not okay from my standards, right? 

“Now I’m in charge so I have two choices: I’ll keep doing what they did or I’ll change it because I think I know, come from different experiences. It’s changing the mindset. Sometimes you’ve got to change the people to be able to buy the culture or the mindset. 

“Some people are happy winning two races. To me, I’m not. Some people are happy finishing third in a championship. We’re not. It was bringing some people with that mentality to help the talented people I had here to change that as well. That’s what we’ve been doing.” 

From the top, Kanaan sets an example. With Brown also embroiled in commitments elsewhere, including overseeing McLaren’s successive Constructors’ Championship titles in Formula One alongside Andrea Stella, Kanaan is, in many ways, the figurehead.

His 12-plus-hour days at the team’s base show a commitment within his leadership that can only instil confidence in the team working below him.

“You need to put the effort to make it happen,” Kanaan added. “I’m relentless. My obsession… whatever people want to call it. ‘You’re crazy.’ If I put something in my head, I want to make it happen. If I believe it and I have support of the people around me, including my big boss that puts more fire under my Brazilian behind than anybody else, then yes.

“I know along the way we’re going to have some hiccups and make mistakes but it made a lot of sense. If it makes sense, we’re going to make it happen. That’s why we’re not going to have an option. We’re going to have to do this.”

Credit: Matt Fraver

Kanaan feels the weight of responsibility of trying to build Arrow McLaren into a team winning IndyCar championships and Indy 500 crowns. But he thrives under that pressure and expectation - just as he has done throughout his career.

“I’m building something the way I know,” rallied the 2013 Indy 500 winner. “I’m bringing people the way I know, I trust to do everything we can to be able to make this team successful. If that’s going to happen or not, we’ll see. We’ll get judged by the results. 

“I love pressure. I love to be put on the spot. That was my entire life so I’m not afraid of that. We have an opportunity here with the people that we have now. For me, as this organisation we can create the same type of history I did with Dan [Wheldon], Dario [Franchitti], [Bryan] Herta at Andretti in a different way. 

“This will be cool to look back and say: ‘Man, this was doing what we did.’ To me, pressure is on. Pressure comes to me - and I give to everybody else too. So we all go for it.”