Resurgent Ericsson “didn’t recognise” himself in 2025 IndyCar season

Credit: James Black

Marcus Ericsson has admitted he was unrecognisable to himself as a driver en-route to finishing 20th in the IndyCar standings for Andretti Global last season.

But to begin 2026, the Swede has now achieved two front-row starts in three races, securing a first career IndyCar pole position for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Arlington. It is his first pole since in the GP2 Series in 2013 for his 117th start as an IndyCar driver.

“It means a tonne,” Ericsson said. “It’s an important year for me. I know that. I was very p**sed off after last year and the way I performed, especially the second half. I didn’t recognise myself as a driver. I wasn’t aggressive. I lost confidence. I was just not myself.  

“I’ve worked really hard to be back at the level I know I can be at and I think that’s been showing these first few weekends. I’m very proud of that and need to keep pushing. It’s just the start of the season but hard work pays off and I feel like I have put it in. 

“But also the team has put it in. It’s a team effort. The No.28 crew I have this year has done a really good job, jumping at the challenge and worked hard to get the car more in the window where I can perform at my best level.”

Credit: James Black

Ericsson is in a contract year for Andretti and in need of a significant upturn of form after regressing six positions last year from an already-disappointing championship finish of 14th in his first season with the team in 2024. A driver formerly famed for his consistency at Chip Ganassi Racing, he only achieved nine top-10 results in those first 34 races for Andretti.

That included only two top-10 results last year - and only one in the final 16 rounds - as his season spiralled, particularly finishing runner-up on the road in the Indianapolis 500.

“I really could take a lot of things that I could learn from last year,” Ericsson said. “I’ve tried to push myself to be in the right state of mind when I go to the race track and I feel like that’s been paying off this year. It comes down to hard work and preparation and it gives confidence knowing that you have put in a tonne of work in an off-season. 

“I jumped in GT3 cars and all kinds of things to build up my confidence and enjoyment of driving race cars again. If you’ve worked really hard on your physical side, mental side with the team, you’ve been out driving different things, you’re really feeling yourself. I put in the work [and] I’m going to be stronger, I’m going to be better.”

Ericsson entered the Arlington weekend ninth in the standings after an encouraging, if frustrating, start to the season. Having started second for the season opener, he ultimately dropped to sixth in St. Pete, though he was still content enough with the progress shown.

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Last weekend at Phoenix Raceway, a return to oval racing, was tougher and resulted in a 17th-place finish, but a return to a street course has immediately signified a return to form.

“I felt like St. Pete was already a really good step and my best weekend as a whole as an Andretti driver and we are on our way to better that this weekend,” said Ericsson, who has seen a number of changes on his team this season. 

“I’ve got to give a shoutout to the No.28 crew with Ron Barhorst and the rest of the engineers and people on my timing stand. There’s a lot of new people there and they’ve been doing a really good job at getting the car in the window.”

Even in Arlington qualifying, Ericsson felt he was “too loose” in Round 1 and only “scraped through with a bit of a scare” in sixth place. But the car was improved throughout qualifying as synergy continues to grow in the No.28 camp.

Ultimately, Ericsson relished the one-and-done nature of the pole shootout, with a revamped single-car format for the Fast Six in Arlington. He was the first of the six drivers to run but none the closest anyone could come to denying him was Álex Palou at the death - still 0.4618s shy of Ericsson’s pole-clinching lap.

“It’s a bit more pressure in a situation like this, where you’re on your own and you get one shot at it,” Ericsson said of the format. “But I always like that sort of pressure cooker. That’s what I like with the 500 and qualifying there and racing at the 500. When the pressure is high, I feel like I really perform my best. I think that helped me today.”

Credit: Jackie Lee

After the tumult of the past two years, this is a significant milestone for Ericsson - not least because it is 13 years since his last pole position in any category.

“It’s been a lot of races in IndyCar but before that I did a lot of races in F1 [after GP2],” Ericsson said. “So it’s been like a lifetime since my last pole position. It was really close to St. Pete - just two-hundredths of a second off pole - so it was frustrating that night. 

“I was thinking: ’I could have done this and this different to get that first pole.’ It got me really fired up because I knew we were going to have a good shot here in Arlington. 

“You always expect a lot from yourself and that was very frustrating for me last year where I felt like I wasn’t driving to the level I should be driving. I was still enjoying it - I still love what I do - but of course it’s more fun to sit here and talk about a pole position than P22.”