Insider: For Arrow McLaren, releasing David Malukas a tough, necessary business decision

There are no winners here.

Arrow McLaren’s bosses – Zak Brown, Gavin Ward, Tony Kanaan, Brian Barnhart and the rest -- are not celebrating days after releasing an injured David Malukas before he'd experienced a single race weekend in a papaya fire suit. Ridding themselves of a young driver, who in February hopped on a mountain bike to train his mind and body for next season, only to end up crumpled on the ground with a mangled left wrist, is not a success.

Arrow McLaren is not a better, stronger, happier, more cohesive race team than they were Sunday. But they will be, because the worst thing that can befall a race team is uncertainty, distraction and noise.

And though Arrow McLaren might not outright say it, that exterior chaos has been building for months. It’s never one thing, but you can hear it in Tony Kanaan’s labored voice as he describes the ways in which his sporting director role has been everything it wasn’t supposed to be. And you can see it when the fastest, most seamless pit crew through two races releases their car without a wheel secured.

There’s a time when rushed, last-minute negotiations with Sauber to get Theo Pourchaire squared away for Long Beach are worth the hassle, and when chauffeuring a driver to doctors appointments, dropping off a sim rig and being a shoulder to cry on are parts of the job you’d never dream of, but parts of the job nonetheless.

Maybe at other teams, they would continue to be so for a while longer. Perhaps without one of the most successful, witty, ruthless men in motorsports at the helm, there would be more time to wait on Malukas’ uncertain timeline, no matter the legal gray area you wade into when you have a four-race out-clause and don’t immediately trigger it.

But that’s just not how McLaren – and by extension, Arrow McLaren – works, certainly not with a driver who was going to be under pressure to perform immediately.

This much was clear at the time of Malukas’ signing: He was not the team’s first choice. Alex Palou was set and ready to join the team, having even worn papaya multiple times on F1 weekends, until he wasn’t. And the 22-year-old ex-Coyne driver very well might not have been Arrow McLaren’s second choice – Callum Ilott was held under a team option by Juncos Hollinger Racing until late-October. And depending on the collective willingness of Arrow McLaren and Felix Rosenqvist to patchwork one more contract together, that may have been the path Brown and Ward would’ve chosen if the Swede wasn't already working towards a long-awaited exit.

So for Malukas, it was no secret just how much executing immediately this year would mean. It’s why he moved from his roots in the greater Chicago area to central Indiana, in order to be in the shop as often as possible. From crew members to engineers, communications folks and team leaders, Malukas had hit it off with his new team in a matter of months. He’d become an important cog both on and off the track, helping provide a connective tissue between new teammates Pato O'Ward and Alexander Rossi.

At offseason testing, the young driver spoke as if he was in the best shape of his life and as prepared for a season to start as ever.

From February: David Malukas likely to miss St. Pete following surgery on dislocated wrist

Hard lessons

Up until February, mountain biking was part of Malukas' training. Ironically, the team listed mountain biking as one of his hobbies in his profile on the team’s website – which has since been scrubbed. He spoke at St. Pete about how riding merged his mental and physical training and, as an experienced biker, of course he didn’t think he was risking anything getting in one last weekend on the trails before his season ramped up.

Then again, Rinus VeeKay didn’t think he was risking anything riding a paved trail from Michigan to Illinois several years back, when he flew over his handlebars and broke his collarbone. Others who have ridden ATVs in the midst of a free-spirited offseason guys’ weekend, or gone skiing, or surfed or done any physical activity outside a stationary bike or treadmill weren’t doing so thinking their careers were hanging in the balance.

And neither did James Hinchcliffe while posing naked for ESPN's 'Body Issue' photoshoot, nor did Oliver Askew when he suspected he might have a concussion in the weeks after a massive 500 crash, but waited as long as possible to alert his team in hopes of working through the pain and holding onto his ride. And yet, a third driver has been cast aside at this team built on Sam Schmidt's elbow grease and Zak Brown's polish caught in the crosshairs of a series full of fans armed with pitchforks and online vitriol.

Their target? A race team who once again has shown us the lengths they'll go to reach the pinnacle of IndyCar. Should you be a young driver still trying to make your name in this sport, and you try the papaya hat on for size, it has to be part of your mental calculus.

Insider: What Arrow McLaren, Malukas split means for Indy 500, 2024 IndyCar season, beyond

Malukas' release was not a surprise

Monday morning’s news shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Zak Brown is hellbent on winning. It’s the only thing that matters. Haters be damned – and he has many – he’s going to do his very best to steamroll his way to the top. And he’s not here to take the decades’ long route of Penske, Ganassi or Andretti, when he has as much money as anyone to get there. With that comes a willingness to do whatever it takes to super-charge the process.

He’s gone after some of the best drivers in the series – including Scott Dixon and Palou – with money, new challenges and the prospect accomplishing lifelong F1 goals. He’s snagged some of the sport’s best engineers – including Ward and Craig Hampson – and let them choose their role. One prospered, while the other is already gone.

Do right by him and for him, and you’ll have an endless leash. But the moment you cross him – or perhaps worse, begin holding the team back – you better count your days. In the end, though, it’s always just about business, rather than emotions.

At the same time, though, McLaren Racing prides itself in being maybe the most popular community in all of racing – particularly strong in snatching the new-age casual motorsports fan birthed in the ‘Drive to Survive’ era. Seas of papaya flood F1 race weekends – where McLaren has won just once in well over a decade – as well as IndyCar – where they returned full-time less than five years ago, picking up five wins in the process, but without an Astor Cup or Borg-Warner Trophy.

Stem cell shots and sim rigs: Why David Malukas' future with Arrow McLaren is unclear

It's all part of Brown’s marketing genius. Bigger sponsors lead to larger platforms, which leads to more visibility, which leads to more opportunities to woo new fans – all while making more cash that makes it easier to mash the gas pedal. When it comes down to it, all that is a means to an end. Brown wants McLaren back at the top. That means pivoting fast, exploiting loopholes, searching for competitors asleep at the wheel and making difficult decisions in the face of public backlash. Being loved is great. Being loved, and winning? That’s the ultimate goal, but race wins won’t be sacrificed to win the news cycle.

Still, that doesn’t make the news any tougher to spin, hours after the team had maybe its worst day at a racetrack in over a year. To some, it came off as Arrow McLaren admitting they had problems to address – and then cutting loose the one driver who wasn’t in a car all weekend. That the news was then immediately followed by a post on X celebrating themes of May including ‘togetherness,’ ‘camaraderie’ and ‘community’ rang hollow to some. That there was a video from the weekend of Malukas polishing the No. 6’s rear wing with his one good arm didn’t help either.

Those disappointed in how the situation was handled and how Malukas was seemingly cast aside and his future in the sport now uncertain, all because of an accident while he was trying to ready himself for his debut in papaya, have every right to boo and root for anyone else this May.

For Arrow McLaren, life moves on. Ward sits in an uncomfortable position, as a team leader who’s made public his position of protecting his charges’ mental health and not making race results the be-all-end-all. But getting to where he and his boss want to take Arrow McLaren is going to take years more of scraping and clawing to yank back the hold that Penske and Ganassi have had on this sport. Should you join them on that journey, whether it be as a fan, engineer or driver, you may have the time of your life along the way.

But the path won’t be easy, and not all those who hop on board will survive the bumps and detours along the way. The road to the top of IndyCar has never been and will not be an easy one. Despise them for their ruthlessness and laugh when they fall short, but you can’t fault them for fighting to compete in every facet of the sport.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Arrow McLaren made business decision releasing David Malukas