Arrow McLaren’s driver lineup has been one of the hottest and most controversial topics in the NTT IndyCar Series’ world since the middle of 2022 and, for better or for worse, things don’t seem to have changed.
The team’s June 18 announcement that Nolan Siegel would take over driving duties for their No. 6 Chevrolet was only the latest entry in an uncomfortably long string of driver drama dating back to summer 2022. Siegel’s promotion comes at the expense of Theo Pourchaire, who piloted the car for five races between Long Beach and Road America.
Pourchaire was announced on May 9 to be taking over the No. 6 after the team opted to part ways with David Malukas, who was still recovering from a wrist injury suffered in the offseason. At the time the plan was for Pourchaire to finish out the 2024 calendar with McLaren bar one race, the Indianapolis 500, where Callum Ilott would be in the cockpit.
That makes, in the last year, six drivers that have had their hands, real or proverbial, on a seat in McLaren’s second of three cars. More concerning than that number, an average driver tenure of two months, is that the bulk of McLaren’s moves relating to the No. 6 car have been poorly received by many observers.
And, ironically enough, the driver with perhaps the most skin in this mess has never been so much as photographed in a McLaren orange t-shirt. To put the whole picture together, let’s begin there.
Order in the Court
Alex Palou, two-time IndyCar champion and driver of Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 10 Honda, was initially reported to be re-signing with Ganassi for 2023. The drama started almost immediately when Palou put out a tweet asserting that not only was he not coming back with CGR, but that the team had published a false quote under his name in their press release.
Palou and McLaren then confirmed that they had reached an agreement for the Spaniard to join the team for 2023 alongside Felix Rosenqvist.
At this time, Palou’s name was legitimately in the ring for a seat at the McLaren Formula 1 team, though it was unclear in what capacity the then-defending IndyCar champion could expect to join the team as Oscar Piastri was embroiled in a very similar piece of contract drama between McLaren and Alpine.
However, after winning the 2022 season finale at Laguna Seca, Palou was confirmed to instead be returning to Ganassi for 2023 while still maintaining some ties to McLaren, including plans to test in the team’s F1 program throughout the season.
In between Palou’s announced departure and then return to CGR came one lawsuit from the team in July that year directed at Palou and another toward Palou and CGR from both Arrow McLaren and McLaren Racing Limited.
According to McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, the decision to sue Palou and CGR came after Palou had backtracked on his expressed intent to compete with the team for 2024 after even being given an advance on his salary for the season.
In a letter circulated by Brown throughout the team at the time of the suit being filed, he said McLaren had “paid a significant first payment toward his 2024 season, in addition to the millions of dollars toward developing him in our Formula 1 testing program and in his reserve driver role with a potential drive in F1 in the future.”
At the time of writing, McLaren is currently reported to be seeking around $30 million in damages from Palou, with the judge assigned to the dispute saying that, should mediation and negotiation fail, a trial would not take place until at least October of 2025.
McLaren eventually filled out their lineup for 2023 with Alexander Rossi joining Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward.
Malukas Mania
Following the 2023 season it looked as though Malukas would step into the team following two impressive seasons in the No. 18 for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports. This was confirmed by the team late in the 2023 season.
Malukas had become a very hot commodity before the end of his rookie season when he stormed to a second-place finish at World Wide Technology Raceway, commonly referred to as Gateway, in 2022. Malukas and then-teammate Takuma Sato used an alternate tire strategy to charge through the field in the race’s closing laps and had the event been five or 10 laps longer, we may be referring to Malukas as an IndyCar winner.
Nonetheless, the young Chicago native had made his mark and his services were swept up by McLaren in September of the following year.
Then, in early February this year, Malukas injured his wrist in a mountain biking accident and was ruled out from the season opener. Ilott stepped in to the car at St. Petersburg. A continued series of delays in Malukas’ recovery opened up McLaren’s options to exercise a clause stating that they could release their driver if he missed four races.
The team announced that they had released Malukas the day after the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber, which was the third points-paying race of the season and fourth overall when counting the exhibition at the Thermal Club.
Malukas is now set to return to IndyCar competition with Meyer Shank Racing at Laguna Seca.
Ilott Floats Through Purgatory
The odd man out, comparatively (everything has been odd here so far), in all this was Ilott. He was the first driver to come to McLaren’s aid when their plans with Malukas didn’t pan out and also got the least time in the car, so far, of Malukas’ myriad of replacements.
Ilott’s late-2023 exit from Juncos Hollinger Racing left the young Briton without concrete plans for 2024. Upon being called up to McLaren, he finished 11th at St. Pete, did not make the final round at the Thermal Club exhibition and was then out of the car until the Indianapolis 500.
His campaign in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing was cut down by electrical problems during the pace laps, which forced the No. 6 down pit road for examination. Somehow, Ilott rebounded for an 11th-place finish all the same. Nothing short of impressive.
According to RACER, McLaren’s decision to not put Ilott in the car for the rest of the season was motivated in part by conflicts presenting in his commitments to the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. RACER‘s Marshall Pruett also reports that multiple IndyCar teams have expressed interest in Ilott for 2025.
Pourchaire Pours On the Performance
Pourchaire’s brief run in the No. 6 was perhaps the most impressive of the bunch, excluding Rosenqvist who had the benefit of full-season contracts from 2021-2023.
The French driver collected a top-10 finish at Detroit, though not without a heap of controversy on the side. An 11th-place finish in his debut at Long Beach raised the value of his stock so much that, as mentioned before, the team committed to the full season with him, barring Indy, in early May.
After earning the biggest mover award at Long Beach, Frontstretch’s Michael Massie caught up with a beaming Pourchaire, who had nothing but good things to say about his experience.
“I enjoyed it a lot,” he said. “I hope to be back soon. I had so much pleasrue this weekend, I want to be back … For the moment, we will see for Barber if David [Malukas] is ready to drive.”
Again speaking to Frontstretch on the grid before the Indy 500, Pourchaire was still all smiles and looking forward to wrapping up 2024 in strong fashion with the team.
“I’m so happy to have this opportunity, to be able to drive an IndyCar, which is in my opinion one of the best motorsport series in the world” Pourchaire said of the opportunity to pilot the No. 6 to the season’s end. “I’m really looking forward to being in Detroit next Friday. I’m counting down the days, I’m ready. I’m ready to get back in the car!”
Making the situation even more difficult for Pourchaire is the fact that, in order to commit to the season with McLaren, he withdrew entirely from his 2024 Super Formula campaign. His seat in Japan’s elite open-wheel racing series at Itochu Enex Team Impul was taken by Ben Barnicoat at Autopolis and Hibiki Taira at Sportsland SUGO.
Like Ilott, Pourchaire is now without concrete plans for the rest of the year. But RACER has likewise reported that there is ample interest from other teams in the paddock for Pourchaire’s services in the future.
Enter Siegel
Now, after a wacky part-time campaign to start the year, Siegel enters the picture.
Siegel first committed to a part-time schedule in Dale Coyne Racing’s No. 18 entry, sharing driving duties with Jack Harvey. A DNQ at the Thermal Club was followed by a 20th-place result at Long Beach before Siegel really made his mark in Indianapolis.
Facing elimination from the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, Siegel went for broke in his last chance to qualify for the race. Looking to eliminate Graham Rahal from the 33-car field, Siegel clipped the wall exiting turn 1 and eventually binned the car into the turn 2 barrier.
Still, the rest of the series was put on notice by Siegel’s sentiment following the crash.
““I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not going to go home because I lifted on my last run,” he told the media. “I’m going to go home because I did everything I possibly could and ultimately that wasn’t enough and we went too far. Going flat was either going to lead me to the grid or to the wall and it led me to the wall, so here we are.”
Weeks later, opportunity came knocking again when Siegel was hurriedly placed in Agustin Canapino‘s No. 78 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing at Road America. Canapino opted to sit out the race after being embroiled in a social media storm surrounding abuse directed at Pourchaire by a number of Argentinian fans after the Frenchman collided with Canapino on-track in Detroit.
With his main goal being to finish in one piece at Road America, Siegel collected a 23rd-place result, meeting his goal.
Siegel’s deal with McLaren was announced to be for 2024 and beyond, suggesting the team had their eyes on him before making the decision to put him in the car at Pourchaire’s expense for Laguna Seca and it has been reported that Tony Kanaan, former IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner, exercised all his influence to point the opportunity in Siegel’s direction; even going as far as to lay his job on the line according to a report from Curt Cavin.
Upon seeing Siegel give up his Indy NXT seat to focus on his substitute effort at Road America, Kanaan immediately approached Gavin Ward, Team Principal at Arrow McLaren, to advocate on the young driver’s behalf.
““When that happened, I came straight to Gavin (Ward, Arrow McLaren’s team principal), and I said: ‘Hey, you’ve got to trust me on this. I’ll put my job on the line, but I know what I’m doing,’” Kanaan told Cavin of his ambitions to put Siegel in the No. 6. “I mean, I believe it, I truly believe it. I don’t need to sit here and try to sell it. I wouldn’t put my reputation (on the line) just because.”
Kanaan’s efforts paid off.
Is It Over Yet?
American Founding Father Patrick Henry is most famous for a phrase made in a 1775 speech to the Second Virginia Convention: “Give me liberty or give me death!”
However another locution, perhaps just as potent, can be found at the beginning of that same speech, one which feels hard to ignore in situations like the one surrounding McLaren for the past 23 months.
“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.”
It seems, now, that Siegel is in McLaren’s long-term plans. As things stand, the young American is secure in papaya orange through 2024 and likely through at least 2025.
Siegel’s promotion takes one of the hottest seats on the IndyCar grid off the market, meaning several drivers looking to cement their plans beyond 2024 have one less option to pursue.
That being said, judging by the team’s past, laid out in the previous nearly 2,000 words, how safe can Siegel feel?
Is it time to lock in and focus on earning his spot in the series, or will the team’s history of mishandled, questionable conduct surrounding its driver lineup keep the 19-year-old looking over his shoulder?
About the author
Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.
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