Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles renewed talks of international expansion in recent months after speculating the possibility of a series of non-championship races outside of North America.
McLaren’s Brown doesn’t see any value in the single-seater series trying to expand beyond the United States while it hasn’t got a strong foothold domestically.
“I’m not a fan of IndyCar going outside of the Americas,” Brown told Speedcafe.
“I know it’s Aussie [readers] here, and I love Aussie, and I’ve got a Supercar team, and I love the F1 race in Aussie, and I’ve got an Australian driver, so it has nothing to do with Australia, but IndyCar needs to grow its own market before it starts going international outside of America.
“It’s got to be relevant which country we’re talking about when we don’t have a race in the northeast in America. That needs to be our priority before we start [looking overseas].
“Because just with the sponsors, I’ve never met a sponsor who’s like ‘Yeah, I’m in charge of North America and Australia’ or ‘I’m in charge of North America and England’ — either you’re global or you’re domestic.
“No different than I would be a big fan of Supercars coming to Singapore and staying in Asia-Pac[ific], I wouldn’t be a fan of Supercars going to North America for the same reason. I’ve got an Australia budget or I’m responsible for Asia-Pac but I’ve never met anyone who’s responsible for Australia and North America.
“I just don’t love the idea of IndyCar straying away from America, specifically North America. But if you wanted to, then get into Mexico and Brazil and then Americas. So that’s my personal opinion.
“I love Adelaide. I love the Formula 1 race that used to be in Adelaide, that is not a reflection on Australia. It’s just my general view of until you’re maximizing your home market. I don’t think the sport should look to go outside the home market.”
Australia was a popular destination for Champ Car throughout the 1990s and 2000s before unification with the Indy Racing League.
IndyCar in its current guise visited the Gold Coast once in 2008 as a non-championship race but did not return beyond that.
The series has flirted with international destinations for decades but has not raced outside of the United States since 2013 when it visited Sao Paulo, Brazil.
For Brown, the absence of a race in the northeast of the United States is the biggest drawback for IndyCar.
IndyCar has never visited New York and last visited nearby New Hampshire in 2011.
The closest race to the United States’ northeast is in Canada on the streets of Toronto.
“If I was sitting here going, ‘I think the IndyCar schedule is perfect’, then you start,” Brown explained.
“The Australia race, Gold Coast, it was awesome. I have no doubt it would be an awesome race, but I think there is too much growth required in North America.
“The core product, it’s a North American product and until we’re satisfied where we are there, I just don’t think we should be looking to other parts.
“No different than the Middle East. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement in North America. That’s where we need to focus.
“The northeast is a huge market, and we’re not there.”
Brown identified local TV ratings relative to Formula 1 as being a focal point for the series.
As it stands, the Indianapolis 500 remains its biggest asset and gathers the greatest audience of any race.
However, its local races pale in comparison to the grands prix in Houston, Miami, and Las Vegas.
“When you look at what Formula 1 has done in North America, it shows you how quickly a sport can grow if you get it right,” said Brown.
“Formula 1, outside of the Indy 500, has bigger TV ratings in North America. Now that’s a problem for a North American championship.
“We’ve got to get our TV ratings up. We’ve got to get our calendar more robust in North America before we start talking Argentina, Australia, England – pick a place.
“It’s about having the right events and the right venues and having the right media partner, which I think we now have with Fox being the new partner,” he added.
“Everything’s on network, where our other great partner [NBC] was a combination of network and cable.
“Then also with the Fox deal, the broadcast times are longer, so we had too many races where it was like, ‘we’ve run out of time, so we’re going to do a really quick interview with the winner’, because there were so many yellow flags.
“Both the fact that everything’s on network and the hours of programming have substantially expanded. You take that along with fixing some of the calendar and dialling in digital, which is, I think we’re behind on where we need to be.
“If you can get those three things right I think you start building that momentum that we’re lacking at the moment.”
