STEAM CORNERS, Ohio – Alexander Rossi sounded like a man who was looking forward to his next opportunity in IndyCar when he spoke to NBCSports.com on Wednesday.
Rossi and Arrow McLaren announced Tuesday that the driver would be leaving the NTT IndyCar Series team at the end of the 2024 season. His replacement will be Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, driver of the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda.
“I’m very confident,” Rossi told NBCSports.com about his future. “It’s exciting to think about all of that, but that’s not the No. 1 focus because we are in the middle of a championship.
“I think the future is bright and that next chapter will come when it comes but right now, we are in the middle of a very strong season, and we have the opportunity as an organization to put two cars in the top five in the championship and that is what we need to be doing.”
Heading into this weekend’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, teammate Pato O’Ward is sixth in the championship race, but just two points behind Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood for fifth place.
Rossi is seventh, 12 points out of fifth.
If things are going this well, why is Rossi leaving Arrow McLaren?
“Good question,” he said. “Fans often forget this is as much of a business as it is a sport. It’s called ‘contract negotiations’ for a reason.
“You have to find a middle ground and a space where everyone feels they are meeting their obligations to their partners and the people they are responsible to. This is something that we tried to come to terms on for several weeks and couldn’t quite get there.
“It became clear we were going to go our separate ways. That became pretty clear in Laguna and then officially on the Tuesday after Laguna-Seca (on June 25).
“We’ve had two days on track since then and as a team we are moving past that. It was just one of those things where we couldn’t meet in the middle.”
Speculation has Rossi linked to PREMA Racing, but Rossi told NBCSports.com that he has not spoken to the Italian-based team that is joining IndyCar with a two-car operation in 2025.
“There are quite a few teams we are talking to,” Rossi said. “Actually, we haven’t talked to PREMA. A lot of people are thinking that. I know some of their engineers, though.”
Rossi is leaving Arrow McLaren after two seasons. He burst into IndyCar as a rookie from Formula One in 2016 with what is now Andretti Global and won the 100th Indianapolis 500 that season.
Rossi would become one of IndyCar’s most exciting racers from 2016-19 with seven wins and two near-misses at a championship during that span.
But in 2020, he hit a winless streak that lasted until he drove to his eighth win for Andretti at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on July 30, 2022 – two months after he announced he was joining Arrow McLaren in 2023.
A change of scenery was expected to help Rossi returned to prominence, but so far, he remains winless at Arrow McLaren with one podium in 2023 and one podium this season.
Despite that, the American driver from Northern California is still fast and fearless.
As he leaves Arrow McLaren, he believes the team has made progress.
“Arrow McLaren is close,” Rossi said. “They are doing a lot of good things. Last year was probably the biggest struggle and challenge they would have had as an organization. When you think about the history of this team, McLaren as an entity has really only had full control of it from the previous ownership since 2023. Bring into that an additional car and additional people and staff and challenges in a very competitive championship, there are going to be some growing pains and teething issues along with that.
“But we are through that.
“In 2024, everything has been much more scientific and a higher level of execution from everyone, myself included. You are seeing that on track.
“The next step to beat Ganassi and Penske is hard for everyone. Trust me, we are trying every day to close the gap on those guys.
“We wish it were in 48 hours so we could show up at Mid-Ohio and kick their butt.”
Arrow McLaren has had to navigate some unexpected driver issues that began when Alex Palou informed the team last August that he would not be moving to the operation and was staying at Chip Ganassi Racing. Arrow McLaren has taken Palou to Commercial Court in the United Kingdom, stating he bailed on a signed contract.
With Palou not coming to the team, it hired young David Malukas for that ride. Malukas fractured his left wrist from a mountain-biking crash in February and had emergency surgery.
When Malukas missed the first four races of the season, Arrow McLaren terminated his contract.
Theo Pourchaire, a young driver from France who is the youngest winner in Formula 2 and Formula 3 history, was signed to a contract for the rest of the 2024 season. But when 19-year-old Nolan Siegel became available, Pourchaire was ditched and Siegel was signed to a multi-year deal before the most recent race at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.
The drama has carried over into July with the most recent announcement that Rossi is leaving, and Lundgaard is the next driver at Arrow McLaren.
“You have to cut everyone some slack because it has been one thing after another with these guys,” Rossi said.
Despite that, Rossi has called this a very rewarding season because of the efforts and cohesiveness that exists on the team, even with the chaos.
“This year, the whole Month of May at the Indianapolis 500 was such an enjoyable process for me as a driver to have a car that was as strong as it was for the entire month.
“It was an enjoyable time with some people that I love going to the race track with.”
Rossi believes Arrow McLaren’s “kids are alright” will get along well as O’Ward is 25, Lundgaard turns 23 on July 23 and Siegel is 19.
“They are all about the same age, so that probably helps,” Rossi said. “Christian has a very similar sense of humor to Pato, which will probably be great because Pato’s sense of humor is unique. They will hit it off from that standpoint.
“And everyone is still getting to know Nolan. I’ve worked with him for four days.
“I haven’t done anything mean to Nolan yet. We will wait until the end of the season when he can’t have a rebuttal.”
