Kyle Larson recently expressed his desire to compete in Formula 1. During an appearance on Kevin Harvick’s *Happy Hour* podcast, Larson discussed his interest and the careful planning required for such a transition. With McLaren Racing’s CEO Zak Brown open to the idea, Larson’s ambitions seem possible.
He said:
“I would love to do it, and it sounds like hopefully, I’ll get to it eventually. I think it was an option this year, but I have so much going on. It’s something I need to plan at least a year in advance.”
“I would like to, but honestly, I’d prefer to do it in one of those post-Abu Dhabi test sessions when other drivers are on track, too. … Driver swaps are cool, but you don’t have a gauge of where you stand compared to others.”
“It would be fun to drive with Oscar [Piastri] or Lando [Norris], but I’d love to be on track with 19 other cars to really see where I am on the speed charts.”
Larson’s varied racing background includes dirt tracks, Sprint Cars, open-wheel, and stock car racing. Recently, he qualified fifth for his first Indianapolis 500. Despite a pit road penalty that ruined his top-five hopes, his performance was still strong.
He added:
“Obviously, I don’t think I’d be the best, but I’d hope to not be last.”
“I think it would show how good American oval racers are. Or, if I did poorly, it would show how bad we are.”
Brown’s openness to giving Larson a test in the McLaren F1 car makes the idea more realistic. On a different *Happy Hour* episode, Brown explained:
“We’ve been talking about it. Kyle, as you can imagine, wants to do it between our schedule, which runs from February to December, and NASCAR’s schedule, which is February to November.”
“Finding that window is tricky — we did it with Jimmie Johnson and Fernando [Alonso] in Bahrain with Hendrick Motorsports about five years ago, and it was a lot of fun. I’d love to see Kyle in an F1 car. It’s something we’ve discussed and I think will happen eventually.”
