Arrow McLaren has promoted Lauren Gaudion, its director of communications, to an elevated role of VP of marketing and communications. She replaces the outgoing Mo Murray, who joined the team in January of 2023 in the marketing VP role.
“To say I’m excited would be an understatement,” Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward told RACER. “Since Lauren has come into this team and this sport, she’s really impressed everybody that has interacted with her and she’s knocked it out of the park. We were looking to consolidate our commercial and communications structure, and I always like to look internally for opportunities for people and it was clear that Lauren’s got huge potential.
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“It’s a big leap. And no, she hasn’t done some of this stuff before. But this was a group decision amongst the whole executive team here, and we have a lot of faith in her and we’re here to support her with the resources she needs from within McLaren to make the transition as smooth as it can be.”
As one of the strongest teams in IndyCar on the marketing and promotions front, Gaudion will have plenty of internal support as she grows into the position. New to motor racing, Gaudion made immediate progress in building upon the work of her predecessor, former McLaren communications boss Tim Bampton, who elevated the team’s PR department to sit among the series’ best.
“In what I’ve seen in Lauren, she embodies the characteristics that really we’re looking for in the team culture here at Arrow McLaren,” Ward said. “She’s just been unquestionable in her work ethic, she’s super-organized, and she’s always going out of her way, seeking the thankless recognition of colleagues and the commercial team here. She’s great with outreach programs in the community and has gotten on super well with our UK teammates.
“She has that cheerfulness in the face of adversity and is willing to have a difficult conversation with people for their for their own benefit. It’s exactly what we want to see. And with her new role, we feel like that’s a group she’ll lead and we’ll grow together. I’m excited.”
The team has also hired veteran IndyCar mechanic and championship-winning pit crew member Kyle Sagan as its new manager of pit stops. Although the position is common among NASCAR teams, it isn’t a widespread phenomenon in IndyCar, so for Arrow McLaren, it’s a new role for the team and marks a managerial transition for Sagan, whose resume includes stops at Andretti Global, A.J. Foyt Racing, and Chip Ganassi Racing, where he won the 2023 title as a rear tire changer on Alex Palou’s No. 10 Honda.
“The discipline justifies a full-time position with someone that really owns it, and an approach of mine is giving clear areas of ownership and accountability across the team,” Ward said. “And pit stops is always an interesting one, right? Because you’re trying to balance a lot of things with the abilities of the mechanics and how they work on the car and then go over the wall for pit stops.
“I really wanted to make very clear that we have an owner who is who is 100-percent focused on getting us from being the third best team on pit lane last year to being the best.”
Known as one of the ‘glue guys’ within the paddock, Sagan is someone who Ward sees as a great fit that goes beyond his primary duties with coaching and tuning up Arrow McLaren’s pit crew.
“When you look at Kyle, you had two things there that were super-exciting,” Ward said. “One is there’s no one who’s going to question his ability over the wall to get the job done. So you’ve got the credibility in terms of someone who’s done it for a long time and done it at the highest levels in the highest pressure situations.
“And the second thing is just his character. We talked to Kyle and right away, it’s like, this is a guy who gets it. He gets it on the people level. And he’s got a lot of people skills. I think Kyle is just a wonderful human being, and the kind of character that understands what a winning culture feels like. That’s just a great, great person to have on the floor. And we’re just getting started here.”