From the start of 2023, Arrow McLaren SP will change its name to Arrow McLaren.
While that may seem like a simple rebranding, it marks the end of what has been a truly immense era for Sam Schmidt who set up Sam Schmidt Motorsport just over a year after an Indy Racing League crash that meant he’d live the rest of his life as a quadriplegic.
It’s been a storied run for the team, who initially cut their teeth in the Indy Racing League during the famous split, before being an Indy 500 only entry between 2003 and 2010. It also had a huge presence in Indy Lights and Indy Pro 2000, winning in seven drivers titles including the 2011 Lights championship with the future, 2-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden.
The arrival of Ric Peterson in 2013 to form Schmidt Peterson further advanced the team to enable it to win races and often challenge the ‘big three’ IndyCar outfits.
Simon Pagenaud won the team’s first race in 2013, adding three more to his tally before leaving for Penske at the end of 2014, and going onto win the IndyCar title in 2016 and the 500 in 2019.
James Hinchcliffe added a further three wins to the team’s tally plus an Indy 500 pole as over the next few seasons the team ran current IndyCar drivers Marcus Ericsson and Jack Harvey who both secured top three finishes with the team, as well as Robert Wickens who was tragically paralysed in a crash at Pocono in 2018.
It wasn’t the only tragedy that hit the team over the years. Dan Wheldon sadly lost his life in a crash at the season ending Las Vegas race in 2011 with a joint entry between Sam Schmidt Motorsport and Andretti. Team manager Chris Griffis died just a month before.
It’s first driver Davey Hamilton suffered a terrible crash at an IRL race at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2001 and James Hinchcliffe suffered a life-threatening accident in the Indy 500 Qualifying just a year before his pole position.
The advent of McLaren racing in 2020 with the likes of the young and hugely talented Pato O’ Ward coming into the team as well as extremely skilled and renowned former Red Bull Racing and Penske Engineer Gavin Ward, gave the team the final, crucial push to get itself amongst the likes of Penske, Ganassi and Andretti.
The added resource has also allowed it to further develop the likes of its damper programme, which is a. key aspect to performance in IndyCar and other development tools and simulations to improve its competitiveness.
In the summer of 2021, it was announced that McLaren had a majority stake in the team, however both Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson will remain as Directors of the team and a key part of the outfit.
It marks the end of a wonderful era for the Schmidt Peterson name, however, the spirit and essence of the team will live long into the future.