Optimistic Siegel clear on IndyCar future after “frank” Kanaan comments
- Archie O’Reilly
- 3 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Nolan Siegel has not yet spoken to Arrow McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan after comments emerged in the media last month about his future at the IndyCar team.
But the 21-year-old, who debuted for the papaya outfit in June 2024, is calm about the expectations set by his boss, who told Motorsport that Siegel may need to finish in the top 10 in the 2026 standings for the team to justify keeping him for 2027.
“He was quite frank about that in the media, for sure,” Siegel said on the first of IndyCar’s annual media days. “[But] to me, it doesn’t really change anything. The goal is always to finish as far up the grid as I possibly can and perform at my best all the time.
“Every weekend, I’m pushing myself as far as I can and trying to perform the best I possibly can. It’s not like if the goal is to finish in the top five, I’m like: ‘Oh, okay, I’ll push a little harder to get there.’ I want to finish as far up as I possibly can every weekend. That doesn’t change for 2026. Whatever the expectation is, I’m still going to be doing the same thing.”
Having signed a long-term deal, Siegel ran the final 10 races for Arrow McLaren in 2024 in the seat vacated by the injured David Malukas. But as teammates Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard finished second and fifth in the championship, Siegel’s first complete season was disappointing, ending 22nd in points with only two top-10 race results.
Naturally, expectations were always going to rise ahead of his second complete campaign in 2026: a contract year for Siegel. But he had not had these exact expectations outlined to him by Kanaan before they were publicised in the media in December.
The pair have still not had any in-depth conversation, though Siegel, whose relationship with Kanaan was a significant factor in him joining the team, does not see this as a necessity.
“It’s been a really busy off-season with the new shop opening; we’ve got a lot of new people. I’m sure it’s been very chaotic for him,” Siegel acknowledged. “I’ve been on the sports car side, trying to stay in a race car, put myself in the best position from a driving standpoint.
“I haven’t really talked to him about that. I don’t think it changes a whole lot for him. Him having been a driver, I think he knows exactly how it feels. He knows we’re pushing as hard as we can and are doing our best every weekend. I think he sees it from that side, as well.
“I’m sure we’ll have a chat. I’m not really super concerned about that. He knows me well enough to know where we’re at on that front. There’s not a whole lot to talk through. There’s no issue. I’m excited to continue working with TK. I hope he’s excited to continue working with me. I hope we have a good season together.”
There is an argument that such a public assertion of expectations, especially with consequences for the future, could place unnecessary pressure on a driver. But Siegel’s view is that, in the volatile motorsport environment, that pressure is ever-present.
In a performance-based landscape, he knows you can never settle in your current situation.
“There’s always pressure when you’re competing at this level,” he said. “For me, the pressure comes more internally. I want to perform at my best - that’s why I’m here. I’m here to challenge myself to compete at the highest level.
“Ultimately if I do perform, there will be a future. If I don’t, there won’t. That’s always how it’s going to be in motorsport. That’s how it is for everyone in motorsport. That’s how it is even if you’re established. That’s the nature of being a professional athlete.
“If you perform, you have a job. If you don’t, you don’t. I’m here to push myself to perform at my absolute best. That doesn’t change based on other people’s expectations.”
The competitiveness of IndyCar makes it an additional challenge for drivers in the infancy of their careers to make a mark. Combined with limited testing and an off-season spanning up to six months, it can take time for drivers to learn the ropes, which Siegel realises.
His part-season in 2024 came about suddenly and was something of a whirlwind and baptism of fire. But now compared to his first off-season with Arrow McLaren last year, he has an entire season to draw upon and learn from.
“There’s no real way to accelerate [the learning] process,” Siegel said. “It’s certainly a challenge in every way, including mental. It is a challenging series. On my end, I don’t necessarily think it’s a confidence issue. I’ve raced a lot of different things, been successful in a lot of different things. I don’t think there’s any reason that can’t be the case in IndyCar.
“From my end, knowing what I need to fix and having very clear goals helps me mentally. The hardest and most stressful thing is not performing and not knowing why. But we’ve analysed a lot and actually do know and have things that need to be fixed. We have very, very achievable things to fix from 2025 that will immediately increase the performance.”
For that reason, Siegel does enter 2026 with some renewed belief. He has been able to take positives from last year, despite the lack of headline weekends. But there is also a realisation that, despite glimmers of pace, the end product was not up to standard.
“We had a lot of weekends where the pace was actually really good. Just the execution wasn’t quite there in a lot of different ways,” admitted Siegel, who qualified inside the top six on three occasions. “It’s been a learning experience being a part of such a big team and being a leader in that team. I’ve grown in that role and got better in that role.
“That’s been a challenge but something I’ve embraced. [I have] really tried to learn from my more experienced teammates, Tony. TK is really good at that: a good leader and someone that people want to work hard for. Seeing that mindset from him has been helpful for me.
“From a driving standpoint, there are very critical phases of the races; some phases where you can chill and save fuel, save tyres, save yourself, then portions of the race during pit sequences where you really have to push. That’s where you really make a difference.
“Understanding when those critical phases are is important and something I learned in 2025. There were a couple races where we lost some ground just from me not reading the race properly from in the car. I’ve reviewed all of that and I think I can make big gains there.”
Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class in 2024, Siegel has remained active in sports cars this off-season, finishing third in LMP2 at the Daytona 24 Hours last weekend. At the same time, the break has served as a necessary reset after a tumultuous season.
“With the season being so compressed, it is definitely easy to have a bad weekend and spiral and just get worse and worse,” he explained. “Stopping that can be really difficult. Getting away and taking some time away from racing in general was a really good thing.
“I didn’t really do any racing other than IndyCar last year, which was a good thing in some senses to just focus on it. In other ways, doing endurance racing, with old friends I grew up racing with, it’s still obviously serious and we want to win, but it’s more for fun in a way.
“It’s reminded me why I fell in love with the sport, has really made me take a step back and realise how cool it is to be in the position I’m in. When I was doing that full-time and not racing in IndyCar, I would have done anything to be in the position I’m in now.”
There may have been times last year that Siegel lost sight of the fact he was living out his dream. But ahead of the 2026 season, he has restored some valuable perspective and is ready to fight for his future at Arrow McLaren.
“Sometimes you get so focused on what’s going wrong that you don’t really appreciate the situation you’re in, how special it is to be here,” he asserted. “Going back to endurance racing, taking a step away from IndyCar, has made me very grateful for the position I’m in, definitely reminded me how much I want to succeed here.
“I’m very optimistic for 2026 and confident about 2026. There’s absolutely no reason that we can’t be successful together.”
