Rosenqvist hits IndyCar century: “I feel better than ever”

Written by Archie O’Reilly

Credit: Joe Skibinski

As he takes the green flag at Barber Motorsports Park this weekend, Felix Rosenqvist will hit a century of IndyCar starts.

It was an American journey that commenced for the then-27-year-old Swede in 2019, snapped up by Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR). And he took no time getting up to speed.

Rosenqvist, who finished third in the Formula E championship as a rookie in 2016, set the tone with a fourth-place finish on debut in St. Petersburg. He went on to win Rookie of the Year in emphatic fashion, finishing sixth in the standings, taking pole on the Indianapolis road course in only his fifth race and twice standing on the second step of the podium.

But it has never quite got that good again.

The 2020 season - as a sophomore - played host to the highlight of Rosenqvist’s IndyCar career as he won his only race thus far at Road America. But that was his only top-10 result in the opening seven races in the COVID-impacted campaign, and while form picked up a little, he finished five places lower in the standings than as a rookie.

“Winning my only race in Road America is the highlight,” said Rosenqvist, reflecting on his first 100 IndyCar races. “It was a pretty cool race. It was almost green the whole way. I had a good battle with my buddy Pato [O’Ward] in the end of the race. 

“It was a special race. Seems like ages ago. I feel like the hunger for a new win is greater than the joy of the last one. The biggest memories are probably to come…”

In 2021 came a big change. Replaced by Álex Palou at CGR, Rosenqvist opted to join the burgeoning Arrow McLaren project in a shock twist of events. And it was a tough first year.

Rosenqvist only twice finished inside the top 10, and as a result of a heavy crash courtesy of a stuck throttle in Detroit, he was forced to miss two mid-season rounds. He ended the year 21st in the championship.

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Even at this early stage, Arrow McLaren felt very much like Pato O’Ward’s team. As Rosenqvist - partly owing to his two-race absence - languished 21st in points, O’Ward finished third in the standings.

But 2022 was much better - a return to close to his rookie form - as Rosenqvist jumped 13 positions to eighth in the standings. He was back on the podium, with third in Toronto, and took another two poles - at Texas Motor Speedway and again on the Indy road course. This remains the best championship finish a teammate of O’Ward’s has ever had.

The 2023 season marked a change at Arrow McLaren, adding a third entry for Alexander Rossi. Rosenqvist continued to show signs of his best form but it was a campaign of peaks and troughs, featuring eight results of ninth or lower. He ended the season 12th in points.

There were glimmers, though, in what proved to be Rosenqvist’s final season in papaya. He was on the podium twice more and took two poles, including defending his pole at Texas. With a penultimate-race podium in Portland and pole for the Laguna Seca finale, he ended with somewhat of a flourish.

This form was not a coincidence. 

Joining Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) in 2024, initially alongside rookie Tom Blomqvist, Rosenqvist became a team leader for the first time. And for a team which only twice qualified in the top 10 the year prior, he kicked off his time with MSR in blistering form with a front-row start in St. Petersburg and the team’s first-ever pole at Long Beach.

While Rosenqvist’s season tailed off through a bout of issues out of his control, five top-10 finishes in the first six races alone far exceeded the team’s solitary top 10 at Texas in 2023. A 12th-place finish in the standings matched Rosenqvist’s final season with Arrow McLaren.

Credit: James Black

The potential shown in 2024 has now carried over into 2025. Even with MSR having switched technical alliances from Andretti Global to CGR, there has been no unsettlement. They have only improved further.

As Rosenqvist now nears making his 100th race start, he is fourth in the standings and has finished seventh, fifth and fourth in the first three races of 2025.

“We haven’t really had any bad weekends,” he said. “We definitely stepped up a bit from last year. Last year also had a good start of the season - it’s always how you maintain that through the season. Still early days but we’re feeling pretty good about things. 

“We think our race pace is a bit stronger this year. We feel like we’re in a good spot to actually do a bit better as well. We can improve things here and there - that certainly goes for this season as well. It’s not like we’ve been perfect. We still have a long way to go in certain areas. But very exciting start.”

If things had panned out a little differently at Long Beach, Rosenqvist could well have achieved MSR’s only third-ever podium and first since 2022. He was running third for the majority of the race before being passed by Christian Lundgaard in the final five laps.

“The podium was very close,” he admitted. “We had a fuel reading error in the end, which definitely didn’t help. Our approach is just if you keep knocking on the door, keep qualifying well, having good race pace, it’s going to come to us - not only a podium but also a win. 

“We’re not really rushing into getting a big result or anything. We want to do what we do, improve the little things we can. It’s going to come to us when the moment is there. But honestly every weekend now it seems like we have a good shot at a good result. 

“We’re getting stronger and stronger every race. We’re definitely now a podium contender consistently. It’s going to come.”

Credit: Kaylee Erin David

There would be no better time for Rosenqvist to return to the rostrum and end MSR’s three-year podium drought than in his 100th race. And as he secures a century in the series, Rosenqvist has allowed himself a little bit of reflection on the first 99 races.

“It feels a bit unreal, to be honest,” he said. “It brings you back a little bit to when you were a kid, you were dreaming about driving in IndyCar. Even my first years in IndyCar, obviously nothing you take for granted, racing in one of the top leagues of the world. 

“It’s been like a fast forward. One hundred is a big number. That’s a lot of hours in the car. It’s cool. It’s literally the coolest job in the world you can have. It’s also nice that I feel actually better than ever in the series as well. I probably had my best start to a year.”

Not only is he delivering some of his - and MSR’s - best results on track, Rosenqvist is influencing the team behind the scenes too. He feels more confident than ever that he can make the right decisions when it matters and make a difference.

“Sometimes you’re in a tricky position where you have to go this way on a setup, that way… you have to make the shot,” he explained. “It was easier to just do, my first year in IndyCar, what Scott [Dixon] does because he’s experienced. 

“Now you actually have to make that decision. The more I’ve been in that situation, it seems to pay off pretty well, which gives you more confidence. It’s like a spiral in a good way. Also the team really believes in me, they value my feedback and they really trust in my opinion. 

“It’s been pretty cool to have that support behind me, kind of free rein on what I want to do, how to approach things.”

Credit: Chris Owens

Now 33 years old, Rosenqvist is an established veteran in IndyCar. But after making the switch stateside, did he expect to be here for this amount of time?

“Yes and no,” he pondered. “It’s a pretty big number. Time seems to fly by. I didn’t think at the time I’d get this old… seven years. But it’s cool. It’s a special series. I’ve done some other series for a long time. This one just seems to keep you on your toes all the time. You keep learning and keep digging. 

“In a way, you always feel like a rookie because it’s hard to just rely on your experience. I think Indy is one of the places you do; for other tracks, you just have to go clean sheet into every weekend and adapt. There’s always a different tyre, different this and that. 

“It’s impressive the guys have made it really long in the series, like 10-plus years. It’s definitely tough to compete with the young guns coming into the series, all the challenges that the series throws at you every weekend. 

“I feel proud about it. I’m also planning to stay for another hundred.”

The goal now for Rosenqvist is to maintain the level shown to kick off 2025 and not allow a similar tail-off to that in 2024.

“We’ve got to the point now: ‘Okay, we have this speed, how do we get the points?’” he said. “It’s always in the small things. It’s pit stops, strategy, tyre deg, race pace, how you flow through the weekend. The work has paid off so far. 

“Sitting fifth in points last year around this time, it was hard to see what we could have done better because I feel like we just nailed the first weekends. Now it’s more like: ‘Hey, we can probably be a bit better still.’ Even as we’re sitting good in the points, we still see some low-hanging fruit. That’s the big difference.”