Zak Brown has confirmed that two-time Champ Car champion Gil de Ferran has joined McLaren in an advisory role.

Winner of successive titles in 2000 and 2001, the Brazilian, who had won the British F3 championship in 1992, subsequently won the Indy 500 in 2003.

"The Professor", as he became known, still holds the world closed-course speed record of 241.426 mph set during qualifying for the 2000 finale at the California Speedway, while for almost two years he was sporting manager at BAR-Honda, he also ran his own ALMS and IndyCar teams.

Last year, he was drafted in as an advisor on Fernando Alonso's Indy 500 programme, and having attended a couple of Grands Prix with McLaren this year has sparked rumours that the Woking outfit could be considering a full IndyCar programme.

"Gil's a good friend of McLaren," said Brown today, "we have brought him on as an advisor.

"We want him to help with our young drivers," he revealed. "We are looking at some other forms of motorsport, most notably Indycar is under review - he obviously has great history there, having owned a team, won the Indy500 - and generally is a great racer that knows his way around a garage, and so any expertise he has that he can volunteer to help us improve, we're very open-minded to that.

"So you'll see him around: in Detroit at the Indycar race in a couple of weeks' time and around our Formula One garage often."