Arrow McLaren made yet another driver change Tuesday when it signed 19-year-old Nolan Siegel to drive the remainder of the IndyCar season.
He will be the third driver to race the No. 6 this year.
Siegel will replace F2 champion Théo Pourchaire beginning this weekend at Laguna Seca in California. Siegel will be the youngest driver on the grid. He was born one month after Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Kyffin Simpson.
“I’m looking forward to jumping right in with the Arrow McLaren team this week and confirming my place in the IndyCar Series in papaya moving forward,” Siegel said. “This is an unexpected jump, but I’m thrilled to be in this position.”
Siegel was part of the LMP2 class-winning team Sunday at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a car co-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown. The team already had its eye on the young Californian, who had been running in the Indy NXT feeder series with occasional IndyCar starts.
Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward called Siegel “one of the hottest prospects on the upcoming side for IndyCar and the North American racing scene.”
Siegel had hoped to remain eligible for IndyCar rookie of the year as early as next season, but he was an emergency replacement for Agustin Canapino two weeks ago at Road America. Siegel then decided to skip the Indy NXT race, which took him out of contention for that championship this season.
“I’d be lying if I said we haven’t been looking at him for a while,” Ward said. “… Road America brought this forward in a hurry.
“We were looking for a 2025 commitment. It became pretty clear that the logical thing to do, although maybe not the easiest decision, was to fast-forward and get him the car as soon as possible. We can hit next year, hit the ground running.”
Once Siegel was out of Indy NXT championship contention, McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan worked closely with Siegel on qualifying weekend for the Indianapolis 500, when two crashes kept Siegel out of the 33-car field.
It was on bump day that Kanaan became convinced the young driver is one of IndyCar’s future stars.
“I wasn’t that mature when I was 19,” Kanaan said.
Source: www.espn.com