Details of McLaren, Fernando Alonso's farcical Indy 500 disaster revealed

To say McLaren’s recent foray into the Indy 500 was a complete disaster would be a humorous understatement.

In an interview with The Associated Press, team boss Zak Brown gave a detailed timeline of the litany of errors which ultimately doomed the team’s chances.

McLaren, and driver Fernando Alonso, did not qualify in the 33-strong field for the race, battling a seemingly never ending string of setbacks.

The comical display culminated in the firing of team president Bob Fernley.

The most glaring? The team realised their car didn’t even have a steering wheel just one week away the first testing sessions in April.

“I don’t think we came into this arrogant, I think we were unprepared,” Brown said.

“We didn’t deserve to be in the race and it’s our own fault. It’s not like we showed up and gave our best. We defeated ourselves.”

Brown, the CEO of the team, had to personally obtain a steering wheel.

The problems weren’t over there though.

The spare car McLaren had purchased from technical partner Carlin wasn’t the correct shade of orange - leaving it stranded in a garage half an hour away from the track even during last week’s practice sessions.

This meant when Alonso crashed his McLaren-built Indy Car in practice, there was no spare available for the team to work on.

The issues persisted.

One employee was taken off the team after April testing for an electrical error. The a different electrical issue reared its head in practice.

Then Alonso crashed.

The next day of practice was lost as the now-properly painted Carlin spare was still not race-ready.

A tire puncture went unnoticed because the team had purchased incorrect tire sensors.

After consulting with any team that would help them, confusion in converting figures from inches to the metric system cost McLaren even more time.

Despite all this, the team was still in a position to sneak onto the final row of the grid - the ‘Last Row Shootout’.

Unfortunately, the team still got in their own way.

Despite having a set-up that should have enabled them to reach speeds of 229mph, enough to enter the race, incorrect gear ratios limited McLaren to just 227.5mph.

Reflecting on the litany of issues, Brown said the lost of problems the team would have to address was “a mile long”.

It is uncertain what McLaren’s future in Indycar will be, despite stated ambitions of running a two-car operation in the series.

“I feel an obligation to the fans and sponsors, we let them down. We didn’t fulfil our promise and I think they need more than just an apology,” Brown said.

“There will be repercussions for those who don’t deserve to work for a great team like McLaren.

“We will look at what we learned here and the list is a mile long.

“I hope people appreciate that we go for it, we are racers, and Fernando is a star and we are not quitters. We want to come back.”