Zak Brown is interested in the possibility of signing Sergio Perez to McLaren's IndyCar team, saying the Mexican driver did not deserve to lose his Formula One seat.
It was confirmed this week that Perez will be replaced at Racing Point by Sebastian Vettel in 2021, leaving him without a race seat for next season. Vettel will partner Perez's existing teammate Lance Stroll, son of team owner Lawrence.
Brown, McLaren's CEO, believes the decision to drop Perez was harsh and, although he expects the Mexican to stay in F1, he would jump at the chance to add him to his company's IndyCar team, which joined the series this year.
Asked if he would be interested in bringing Perez to IndyCar, Brown said: "Yes, I think Checo is an extremely good race car driver and racer.
"I think it's unfortunate that he lost his seat because of the two drivers [at Racing Point currently] he's the higher performing driver, but as we know his father doesn't own the racing team so when they wanted to bring in Vettel it was clear Perez was going to be the guy to go.
"I think he'll probably end up in Formula One is my guess, at either Haas or Alfa Romeo, but if he had an interest in IndyCar I think he's a great race car driver and we would be interested in talking to him."
McLaren would not be able to run a third car to accommodate Perez currently, although Brown is confident Perez would bring an appealing financial package with him if he were to decide on an IndyCar career.
"We need the funding for three cars and at this point we only have the funding for two cars, so we wouldn't be in a position to sign him today. But it would be something that between the backing he's historically had and the commercial activity that we've got going on and the excitement someone like Sergio would create we would certainly look to see if we could put it together."