“Alex [Rossi] kind of has that bad guy role in IndyCar …”
It’s a bit unusual to start off a teammate relationship by calling your new coworker a “bad guy,” but Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist didn’t mean it that way.
“It’s cool … we need those guys. But, actually having got to know him he’s been super nice, super kind … he fits like a glove. Pato [O’Ward] is like the crazy guy, I’m somewhere in the middle, Alex is the engineering guy. A guy who knows what he wants.”
Rosenqvist pulled out “bad guy” and “crazy guy” first thing in the morning. Good thing the new McLaren trio have a sense of humor.
Alexander Rossi departing his longtime team Andretti Autosport for the upstart McLaren for 2023 would have been the biggest story of Silly Season, had it not been for a certain Alex Palou’s ill-fated attempt to follow him.
But with Palou obligated to see out his contract at Chip Ganassi Racing, the 2016 Indy 500 winner starts the season perhaps the biggest face in a new place, trading in his traditional blue-and-yellow NAPA firesuit for McLaren papaya orange.
“We all bring something different to the table, which I think is really unique,” Rossi told media, including Frontstretch, from IndyCar content day, “not only in personalities but in driving styles and experience levels … I’m very excited to get out on track and stop talking about it and…drive.”
The 8-time IndyCar race winner admitted he’s still using nametags at McLaren HQ, but maybe he’s not alone.
“Everyone is. There’s [been] close to 40 hires across the organization in the past couple months. So it’s been kind of a good time to come in …”
Says “crazy guy” Pato O’Ward, “It’s a lot, a lot of new faces. I’m still in the process of learning the names. It’s cool to see, we’re all growing… the team is growing, it’s great to see everybody’s enthusiasm.”
While the man behind the wheel of the new third full-time car (No. 7, as Rosenqvist’s team follows him to the No. 6 Chevy for 2023) will certainly grab the most headlines, there’s change at every level of the fourth-year organization, starting from the top.
Ex-Team Penske and Red Bull Formula 1 engineer Gavin Ward joined McLaren at the start of 2022, and after Taylor Kiel stepped down in September was promoted to racing director for 2023, a role Rossi describes as, “sort of all-encompassing… has that technical…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …