McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has shed some light on why its IndyCar team has shuffled its race car numbers for the 2023 campaign.

Its IndyCar programme expands next year, to three full-time entries and potentially a fourth for the Indianapolis 500, rather than the two-plus-one arrangement of recent years.

With Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, eventually, confirmed as staying on, the only change to the driver line-up so far as McLaren SP’s regulars is concerned is the addition of 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi.

However, whereas O’Ward will retain #5, Rosenqvist will drive with the #6 plate, which was only used by Juan Pablo Montoya in last year’s May Indianapolis races, and Rossi will take up #7.

It was Car #6 which Robert Wickens was driving for what was then Schmidt Peterson Motorsports when he suffered major spinal injuries in a crash at Pocono in 2018.

Team co-owner Sam Schmidt, himself a quadriplegic, decided that number would be set aside for the Canadian if he was to ever return to IndyCar competition, although Wickens himself admitted earlier this year that “doesn’t seem feasible.”

Brown explained that the number switch is for sponsorship reasons, but affirmed that Wickens remains part of what is now a majority McLaren-owned operation.

“The reason why Felix is in the 6 and Alex is in the 7 is sponsor-driven, so that’s kind of as simple as that as to why the car number change,” he said.

“Obviously, with the 6 and Wickens and Sam, that was before our time.

“We like the sequence of the numbers.

“Robert’s very much still with the team and plays an important role and we hope to have him continue with that.

“But, that’s why we drove that decision, and what was discussed previously was before our time, so we weren’t kind of part of that conversation at that time.”

McLaren SP has now announced that SmartStop Self Storage will be a primary sponsor for the #6 entry for a selection of races, including those at Indianapolis on the road course in May, in Toronto, and at Portland.

Wickens, meanwhile, took his first victory since the Pocono crash when he and Mark Wilkins drove a Hyundai Elantra N to the TCR class win in a Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Watkins Glen in June.

The 33-year-old has regained limited use of his legs over the last four years, although he races with hand controls due to his injuries.

The 2023 IndyCar season begins in St Petersburg on the weekend of Sunday, March 5.