Wreck to rostrum: Lundgaard’s strong Arrow McLaren IndyCar start

Written by Archie O’Reilly

Credit: Lorena Barros

“Let’s go aggressive. Let’s make up some positions. Let’s show the speed we have.”

That was the rallying cry from Christian Lundgaard to his Arrow McLaren team ahead of IndyCar race day at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

It may have only been his third race for the papaya outfit, but the 23-year-old Danish driver is already stepping up as a leader within a young lineup alongside 20-year-old Nolan Siegel and the more established but still-only-25 Pato O’Ward. 

There had been regret from Lundgaard at the end of qualifying day in Southern California. In position to advance to the Fast Six - to maintain a 100 percent transfer record for his new team - he carried too much speed over the bump on entry to Turn 9 and struck the tyre barrier heavily.

“I didn’t feel the bump in Turn 9 braking throughout the entire qualifying… until I certainly felt it,” Lundgaard said. “We tubbed it.

“The [front wing] endplate made a dent on the chassis. It was a big hit. The endplate was fine basically but the chassis wasn’t so we had to change it. It was a call straight away.”

It was a mistake of consequence. It not only prevented final Fast 12 runs for his teammates, but the fact that the impact necessitated a chassis change meant Lundgaard’s crew were at the track until beyond nightfall at 10pm with qualifying having concluded around nine hours earlier.

The driver of the No.7 was eager to repay his team on race day.

Losing his quickest lap from before the crash meant Lundgaard was forced to start down in 12th. Fearful of an early caution allowing a free pit stop off the softer tyres, the top 11 all opted to start on the alternate compound.

But not Lundgaard. He was the first - and one of only six - to roll the dice and start on the favoured primary compound and not get the alternate stint immediately out of the way.

Credit: Kaylee Erin David

“I told the team, even before warm-up: ‘Let’s try to go aggressive and let’s see what we can do,’” Lundgaard recalled. “We had the most tyres of everybody: two sets of alternates, three sets of new primaries. So I think all options were open for us. 

“We went off-strategy compared to what we expected most of the field to do. We were the first primary-tyre runner in the field. That showed that we had the pace.”

The absence of an early caution, which had benefited those who started on alternates in March’s St. Petersburg opener, led to a chaotic scramble from the soft-tyre runners to pit inside the opening 10 laps due to high degradation. Many of these drivers lost time given the mixture of cars fresh out of the pits on colder rubber and those with up-to-temperature tyres.

This was Lundgaard’s time to pounce as he stayed out on the primaries.

“We made up a lot of pace on those pit cycles,” he said. “Took advantage of clear air.”

Being the lead driver on the alternative strategy, Lundgaard led 26 laps in the opening 40 tours of the race having stayed out and been able to stretch his legs in fresh air. He pitted for the first time on Lap 29 to take the pain of the alternate stint, taking the softer tyres 11 laps - the joint-longest of any driver in the race - before switching back to primaries on Lap 40.

By the time Lundgaard put the harder compound on again, he was merged with the race-leading strategy and had made up eight positions from 12th to fourth.

Lundgaard settled into fourth place for the majority of the race. But with five laps remaining, he reeled in Felix Rosenqvist and seized to jump up into the podium positions with a decisive move at Turn 1. He may well have been clinical on his final opportunity, too.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“Believe it or not, I actually ran out of push-to-pass leading up to that overtake,” Lundgaard admitted. “I looked at the dash at Lap 42 and I had 109 seconds left. I knew that was good because that was around the halfway mark. 

“I forgot about it [after that]. I forgot about my push-to-pass. Probably with 15 laps to go, I still had 84 seconds. That came in handy at the end. Obviously I didn’t really think I was going to be able to go get Felix. We came back to them at the end of the stint where I think we had a little more pace than they did.”

Lundgaard held on with Rosenqvist also defenceless on a push-to-pass front, sealing a second successive third-place finish in only his third event with Arrow McLaren.

“S**t,” was the reaction of Álex Palou, who finished second after winning the opening two rounds, upon realising Lundgaard had a completely new car for Sunday. But that only made Lundgaard’s drive all the more impressive.

It was a stellar team effort. The strategy gamble, which was a collaborative team-driver effort on the No.7 car, paid off. After the St. Pete-induced trepidation, those who gambled on the bolder primary-tyre strategy were vindicated. Five of the top-11 finishers in the race started on that strategy despite nobody in the top-11 starters having rolled the dice.

Lundgaard was also extremely happy with the rebuild of his machine.

“Really happy to reward the guys,” he said. “They had to bring a new car back into play - the ‘Old Lady’, as they called her. For everybody to rebuild a car and put it out on track, she ran effortlessly. 

“The car felt the same. Even though it’s been two chassis, it’s been very consistent throughout the week. I’m extremely happy for everybody.”

Credit: Lorena Barros

Above anyone else, it was a masterclass in management and execution from Lundgaard. Six-time champion Scott Dixon, who started 14th, was next-best driver on the same strategy but finished five positions and over eight seconds behind Lundgaard.

Much like from race-winner Kyle Kirkwood in the Andretti Global camp, it felt like a statement drive from Lundgaard.

Ever since he joined the Arrow McLaren SP team in 2020 as a sophomore, it has felt like O’Ward’s team. He has never been beaten by a teammate in the championship - the best result from a driver alongside him at the team being Rosenqvist’s eighth in 2022.

Neither Rosenqvist nor, more recently, Alexander Rossi showed consistent speed alongside O’Ward. Rosenqvist was only on the podium three times in three years - twice third, once second - and Rossi twice finished third in his two years with the team.

In only three races, Lundgaard has already matched Rossi’s podium tally and is only one rostrum visit shy of Rosenqvist’s total from three seasons.

The team is continuing to develop as an IndyCar outfit after returning in a merger with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in 2020, but there has always been inconsistency between its drivers - whether before or after expanding to three cars in 2023. 

It is early days still, of course, but Lundgaard has immediately delivered a consistent start and shown repeated speed not often present from O’Ward’s teammates. A big deficit to its biggest rivals has been Arrow McLaren’s lack of multiple reliable front-runners. 

“I was very vocal in the off-season that I wanted to get off to a strong start,” Lundgaard said. “I think we’ve clearly done that. I’ve never been higher in the championship than where I am now. We’ve done a good job. We started sort of conservative in St. Petersburg. [Long Beach] we showed what we really can be and where we’re supposed to be fighting.”

Credit: Lorena Barros

Already, it does not feel so much like solely O’Ward’s team. Lundgaard, now in his fourth complete IndyCar season after three years with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL), is third and 16 points clear of the Mexican driver in the championship after three races in 2025.

That is by no means to say O’Ward is not still the lead charger. A qualifying mishap and in-race puncture limited his St. Pete progress; to recover to 11th was an outstanding drive. Following that, he was the lead driver in Arrow McLaren’s maiden front row lockout at Thermal and finished ahead of Lundgaard in second. 

Despite an anonymous run to 13th at Long Beach, which is one of O’Ward’s weakest tracks, he is still sixth in the standings having been second to Palou post-Thermal.

For Arrow McLaren, being able to fire on more cylinders than one on a more regular basis marks a step forward for the time.

“I’m happy to have strong teammates,” O’Ward said at Thermal. “I’m happy to have people that are very fast and that’s just going to make me better. It’s going to make the whole team better. We need team cars to be at the front. 

“We can’t just have one that’s fighting up there. All three Penskes are always fighting at the front. All four Ganassis are always at the front - there’s only right now two Ganassis usually at the front but the Shanks count. It’s what we need in IndyCar.”

For Lundgaard specifically, it is a case of delivering on the promise shown by a Rookie of the Year campaign in 2022, which was followed by a stunning run to eighth in the championship - and first career win in Toronto - in 2023. Even 11th in points in 2024 was significant outperformance of his teammates for a struggling RLL outfit.

Credit: Sabine Rojas

Qualifying fifth and finishing eighth in St. Pete was a steady start for Lundgaard. To then back that up with a P2 start at Thermal, converting third in the race, spoke to a seamlessly quick adaptation to both a new team and engine manufacturer.

“Ultimately the work leading into the weekend is a similar but more detailed process,” he detailed. “I feel like I show up on a race weekend more prepared. I show up with a lot more hope in a sense. 

“It drives me more as well knowing that we’ll be hopefully two cars fighting and then we can push each other. Previously that’s only been on occasions, where I feel like that’s going to be more consistent now. We’re both going to be better at the end of the season. We’re going to evolve and develop each other.

“You want to beat your teammates. It drives you to work harder - physically, mentally, on track, do more for it and go into deeper detail. We’re studying each other’s data, which in the past I’ve studied my own data. I have a lot more information now than I’ve had previously.”

After years of instability - both in terms of the driver lineup and internal positions - now with three young chargers and Tony Kanaan at the helm as team principal, Arrow McLaren is a team edging closer to reaching its lofty potential.