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Just when you think you know the driver lineup at Arrow McLaren, you find out that you still don’t. I don’t know how many were surprised by yesterday’s news that Christian Lundgaard will be replacing Alexander Rossi in the No. 7 cat next season – but I was shocked!

It has been no secret here over the years that I have always been a big fan of Alexander Rossi. Well, not always. When he was first hired by Bryan Herta at Andretti, it was at the expense of Gabby Chaves – who I always thought was underrated. When Rossi first appeared as a recent refugee from Formula One in 2016, he made it quite clear he did not want to be here. Even going into the Month of May, I found Rossi distant, aloof and seemingly wishing he could be anywhere else.

But winning the Indianapolis 500 seemed to humanize him – not immediately, but in the weeks that followed. By the end of the 2016 season, I was a fan. I had come to understand that he was not so distant, but naturally shy. There’s a difference. I also grew to appreciate his very dry and sarcastic sense of humor. While he could be appropriately cordial, it was obvious that he did not suffer fools well. The look on his face when he got what he deemed a stupid question said it all.

If you have ever listened to his podcast with James Hinchcliffe, you will come away knowing another side of Rossi that I can identify with – he is quirky. He obsesses over some of the dumbest little things. I have been told more than once that that label could apply to me as well, but I can’t see it. Anyway, I grew to appreciate Alexander Rossi off the track.

I also liked what I saw from Rossi on the track. When he had a good car underneath him and was stalking the leader, there was no stopping him. He did not try to win friends among his fellow drivers or their fans. By 2018, Rossi was one of my favorite drivers on the grid.

2019 was a contract year for Rossi. He was courted by many teams, including Team Penske. Ultimately, he re-signed with Michael Andretti and it was probably a mistake. In the previous four seasons, Rossi had won seven races. He won at least one race per season his first two seasons at Andretti, then five over the next two. After re-signing with Andretti, Rossi went winless in 2020 and 2021. It was not until the Brickyard weekend at IMS that Rossi scored another win at Andretti. By that time, he had already announced he had signed with Arrow McLaren for 2023.

In exactly one and a half seasons at McLaren; Rossi’s tenure at McLaren has not been terrible, but it hasn’t been stellar either. But as we have all learned by now, Zak Brown’s leash is pretty short. Arrow McLaren reportedly pays very well, so I suppose Zak Brown feels justified ejecting so many drivers who do not immediately excel. Last Sunday’s race at Laguna Seca was only Rossi’s second podium in his time with McLaren, and his first of this season. I suppose that’s the definition of not immediately excelling.

I don’t think Rossi forgot how to drive a race car after the 2019 season. His second contract with Andretti came at a time when results were sparse among all of the Andretti cars. When he went to Arrow McLaren, the team’s results were not exactly eye-popping. The entire team had one win in that time frame, and that came as a result of Josef Newgarden being disqualified six weeks after the race had been run. Currently, Rossi sits one spot below teammate Pato O’Ward, and ten points behind. O’Ward is currently sixth in the championship standings, while Rossi is seventh. O’Ward has accumulated 208 points so far, and Rossi 198. I suppose with an Indianapolis 500 win on his resume – much more must be expected of Rossi in a season and a half; than they expect from O’Ward, who is in his fifth season with the team.

The initial quotes I’ve seen make it sound as if the two sides could not come together on a new deal. It seems like Rossi is taking it well and is at peace with the outcome. That tells me that Rossi probably had something else lined up as a Plan B. I don’t see him calmly walking away if that wasn’t the case. Now the question is, where?

When the news broke on Tuesday around lunch time, I was texting with a friend of mine on where Rossi might go, where potential openings might be and where might be a good fit. My first thought was that Rossi would be a good fit at Team Penske. He has driven for Penske’s sports car team in the Rolex 24 a couple of times, helping to win a podium in 2019. Other than making sure he was cleanly shaven, all reports were that he fit in fine there. The problem is, there are no openings on Team Penske that I know of – unless someone retires or they choose to run a fourth car like they did from 2015 to 2017, before cutting back to three. They also expanded back to four in 2021, to make room for Scott McLaughlin.

My friend reminded me that there has been speculation about the future of Linus Lundqvist at Chip Ganassi Racing. I don’t like speculating about a driver’s livelihood, but I guess that’s what we do. We speculate about practically everything in the middle of the week when cars are not on track.

For the life of me, I have a hard time seeing Alexander Rossi at a team outside of the Big Four (Penske, Ganassi, Andretti & McLaren). Some have suggested a natural progression of Rossi going to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to replace Christian Lundgaard, who stole his seat. For whatever reason, I just don’t see that happening. Even though there might be an opening at Ed Carpenter Racing, I’m not sure I see Rossi headed there. I also think his sites are higher than Dale Coyne, but if he has nothing nailed down by January – never say never. I think Foyt and Juncos are both set for 2025.

Some have suggested Prema, when they debut next season. I just think Rossi’s resume justifies something better than a start-up team – but you never know.

I’m partial because I’m a Rossi fan, but I’m not convinced that Arrow McLaren necessarily made an upgrade. Rossi has eight wins, thirty podiums and seven poles in eight and a half seasons. Rossi has two wins on ovals, including the Indianapolis 500. He has also won on street courses and natural terrain road courses. In his nine Indianapolis 500s, Rossi’s record includes a win, a second, and altogether – six Top-Five finishes. Rossi has also finished second and third in the championship. Lundgaard? In two and a half seasons, he has one win (Toronto in 2023) and two other podiums. He has finished fourteenth and eighth in the championship, and currently sits in eleventh. His Indianapolis 500 record is eighteenth, nineteenth and then thirteenth this past May.

That doesn’t sound like much of a comparison to me, yet for the last year and a half – Lundgaard has been touted as the next best thing in IndyCar. About the only tangible upgrade I see is age – Lundgaard will turn twenty-three this month, while Rossi will turn thirty-three just before the end of the season. Not that Rossi is old by any stretch. He is just now in his prime. But Lundgaard does have youth on his side.

Now that Josef Newgarden has re-signed with Team Penske, I am thinking that Alexander Rossi will be the biggest domino in the free-agent market. In my opinion, he should not have to bring money to the table – not at this point in his career. He should still be able to get a paying gig, even tough he has only one win since the 2019 season. I have felt that for the last two months, Rossi was really coming into his own with Arrow McLaren.

I keep hearing that the Arrow McLaren cars drive differently from other teams in the paddock and they take some getting used to. I’m not quite sure what that means, since their Dallaras look just like every other Dallara in the field; but I’ve been told it’s a real thing. It took Felix Rosenqvist a long time to adjust. By the time he did, his fate had already been sealed at McLaren. I thought Theo Pourchaire and Oliver Askew did decent jobs driving their cars, but my opinion doesn’t matter. Zak Brown’s is the one that matters.

So chalk up another driver that will don the papaya orange, thinking they are going to be the one to make the difference. It is getting harder and harder to keep up with all of the different drivers to go in and out of the cockpits of the Arrow McLaren cars.

This is reminiscent of an old-school baseball saga in The Bronx, that old heads like me will remember and appreciate. George Steinbrenner was infamous for hiring and firing managers for the New York Yankees at the drop of a hat. From 1975 to 1990, the Yankees changed managers seventeen times. Four of them were hired and fired twice (Bob Lemon, Gene Michael, Dick Howser and Lou Piniella). Then there was Billy Martin, who went through five cycles of being hired and fired at the whim of Steinbrenner. I thought I would never see anything like that in sports again, but here we are in 2024 discussing Zak Brown and his revolving door of drivers. It is comical and sad at the same time.

I am not sure who I feel the most sorry for – Alexander Rossi for getting kicked to the curb joining the ever-growing list of former Arrow McLaren drivers; or Christian Lundgaard for jumping into that hornet’s nest. Something tells me that Rossi may end up having the last laugh. But the revolving door is getting crowded. For each driver that churns through Arrow McLaren chasing stardom, it is a continual bad look for the team – if they really care.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on July 3, 2024 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.