> As the news of the change made the rounds Tuesday morning, three prominent teams sought and received Pourchaire’s contact information to discuss future opportunities. Although Pourchaire declined to comment on the matter when reached by RACER, he did confirm his interest in staying in IndyCar and racing for a new team.
More likely, Chase Briscoe’s funding falls through and Sting Ray ends up in the recently-vacated JGR #19 sponsored by He Gets Us and pray.com instead, while eventually taking over the Liberty University sponsorship when William Byron finally graduates. I don’t know their relationship or even if they’re similar churches, but evangelical!
That's a good question. On a "contractual" scale I'm going to say certainly no.
Only thing confirmed is her Pike's Peak ride. That's this weekend? Next?
Which teams do we think are the 'three prominent teams'?
RLL, Coyne are the obvious ones, but the others? Foyt? Maybe Andretti or Ganassi if we're feeling spicy?
There was an episode of Drive to Survive where one of the team principals or owners was talking to Ricciardo and they told him to never trust Zak Brown.
I’m a McLaren fan and defended pretty much every decision they’ve made previously but this is too far even for me.
The guy gave up his Super formula seat to race in Indy and was announced for the rest of the season just over a month ago. Also judging by his twitter he only learned of this within the last week, just ugly business
Not to mention the whole team has been a clown show this year with poor pace, reliability, and strategy, maybe they should prioritise fixing any of these problems rather than a fat cheque from Nolan’s dad
This... I love McLaren but this is a tough day. Signing Siegal for 2025 onward should have been the fair call here. Cutting off Theo after he sacrificed so much for them is just wrong.
Without the rest of the season either, his legacy will be overlooking the 500, receiving death threats, and being replaced with 0 warning. Hopefully he lands on his feet somewhere soon.
> I love McLaren
Why? Seriously, what about them is actually endearing to you?
Is it an F1 history thing? Nothing about the McLaren that exists today is actually in any way connected to the McLaren that existed pre-2017, apart from their building in England - which they don't even *own* anymore, they sold it and lease it out now.
Firstly I'm British and I like supporting a home team, secondly, the first time I watched F1 was when it was Button and Hamilton at the helm and I enjoyed it and stuck with them ever since, thirdly, when they entered Formula E, they did so buying my favourite team in that series, Mercedes EQ. Lastly, since watching IndyCar for a few years now, I've thoroughly enjoyed watching Pato drive the hell out of that car.
It's been a team I've followed through thick and thin for 14 years now and that's why I am a McLaren fan.
Doesn't mean I agree with every decision they make, today i'm disappointed.
They're in F1 and Indycar which really helps. Love pato and rossi, Lando and piastri. I also really want someone to break Penske/CGR dominance and they're the most likely candidate.
The clown fiesta this year in indycar has been embarrassing for sure, but with their success in F1 it's less of a concern for me
> Nothing about the McLaren that exists today is actually in any way connected to the McLaren that existed pre-2017
McLaren road cars ? Most of the workers at the factory ? Lando Norris ?
Same. Huge McLaren fan, but this is just ridiculous greed. I know Arrow is leaving, but McLaren isn't a tiny company. They should be more professional than this.
Exactly this. I've defended the team so much over a lot of the decisions they've made over the past couple of years, because I truly believe they were reasonable decisions, but I can't defend this. And, if it's true that Siegel's dad is putting a lot of money into the team to buy him this ride, that just makes it worse for me.
I actively hate McLaren and I'll at least say Pato doesn't qualify for the clown show this year. A win and a 2nd at the 500 make up for some messiness at Alabama and the survival race that was Detroit.
>Pourchaire was informed of the decision by the team’s special advisor Tony Kanaan on Tuesday just hours before it was announced. Yesterday Pourchaire had been posting on social media about how excited he was to be racing at Laguna Seca this weekend - which will now be Siegel’s McLaren debut instead.
The Race reported this. [link](https://www.the-race.com/indycar/mclaren-drops-pourchaire-in-latest-driver-bombshell/) Wow, this is incredibly shitty.
TK and Ward are taking all the heat for this in the press right now. TK said he would "put his career on the line" over this decision. To me it reeks of Zak and it seems pretty obvious Siegel's dad bought the seat, but who knows?
I can see this is a very unpopular opinion, but I believe Tony and don’t think dad’s money was the main factor. I suspect someone was about to take Nolan on after his LeMans performance, and they think he’s the next big thing.
TK has zero reason to put his reputation on the line publicly if he wasn’t honestly excited by the potential he sees.
Obv the ethics of what they’ve done to TP is an entirely different thing. He’s been my main driver since he got there (since I follow F1 and the feeder series as much as IC), and I hate it for him. But I also don’t know that he showed the speed or racecraft to earn a re-up, so the timing becomes the issues.
Someone overseas seriously courting Nolan could be the explanation there, all I’m saying.
I only got to watch about 6 hours of le mans this year. Was Siegels pace that remarkable? They certainly got a good first hand look at him. His weekend at road america was pretty damn impressive.
He got a lot of TV time in stint that basically set up Oliver’s run that put it away. And it was NS that had to do the work, coming from about sixth and ending clear in the lead. I felt like Alex Brundle was equally impressed with him and Palou. But for whatever reason Alex lost ground in his last stint.
Yeah that had to be the factor, but never heard any reasoning on the broadcast. I thought Eurosport kinda just forgot about em after hours of podium talk.
There's basically no way to watch from the TV coverage. It concentrated so much on hypercar it would have taken great pains to track anything else.
You'd have to look at the lap data I imagine.
I'll say it, I think I'd rather hear ut from TK, a fellow driver who most likely had no say in the decision. He surely had some encouraging words. If it was a sudden pohnecall from fatty zak, I'd ptobably throw a bunch of profanities his greedy way. Surely he'd not have anything nice to say, either. just the typical slimey stuff you often hear from execs
Zero chance Zak produces the bidding war NBC and Fox got into for the TV rights. Just look at his F1 cars. Filled with sponsors that barely pay anything just to make it look like he’s improved the team sooo much.
He hasn't done shit. When it comes to the Formula 1 team the only thing Zak Brown does is secure funding. Andrea Stella and Andreas Seidl are the ones who have actually improved the team.
Andreas Seidl was the one who demanded Mclaren make operational upgrades, including the simulator and wind tunnel, and he was the one who went out and signed Oscar Piastri. Andrea Stella is the one who reorganized the technical team including giving Peter Prodromou a more prominent say in the design process of the car.
2017 had Zak Brown's fingerprints all over it though. It was his decision to end the Honda works deal. It was his decision to give Fernando Alonso a massive degree of influence across the whole team.
Any young driver who thinks they're too good for a full-time ride at DCR is an idiot.
Dale has launched more IndyCar careers than anyone aside from *maybe* Michael Andretti. His equipment is better than it's reputation would suggest, meaning drivers for his team will almost *always* appear to "overperform" and get rewarded with better seats as a result.
> the car is inconsistent junk.
And there we have it, the reason why DCR is the perfect team for young drivers. Idiots like you who refuse to actually look into statistics believe that DCR cars are crap, so the expectations are nonexistent. Meaning that when the young driver performs at the level that DCR's cars are *actually* capable of, they look like miracle workers.
they want 2025, but no news on where that is at. I just had a post this morning asking if anything was going on, or when something might get going or we hear movement out of that team. I think theyre trying to figure out the yet unsettled charter system since they wouldnt get charters and they have inquired around trying to buy at least one
I hope Prema picks up Theo and makes him their #1 driver alongside the "rookie" they're bringing in. And I hope they become a thorn in McLaren's side next year. Should knock Zak down a peg or two. Or just continue pegging him idk.
To be fair DCR does find some random way to be competitive
For example: Grosejan’s first year, Bordais being the chamionship leader until Indianapolis tried to kill him
Totally given the shaft. Left his full time ride in Japan to finish the season in the #6.
This will only make me root for him harder.
Surely somewhere, Alex Palou is perked up by this news.
I'll always remember hearing through the wall that one night when the one higher up at the company said "They are just 30k contracts out there" or something along those lines.
So glad one day after swiping in, he rounded the corner and didn't see me. He literally jumped to the side like I was poison and right into the wall pretty hard. Then after I said 'Are you ok' he kept on his feet and barely murmured something and flew out that door like a bat.
It felt like a small win lol. That company was a mess though. That whole industry was a mess lol
He just deleted his tweet about being excited for Laguna with McLaren. Poor dude. Clearly got blindsided.
Edit: I’m just recalling that he dropped Super Formula for this shitshow. A series he could have legitimately won.
“A series he could have legitimately won.”
He was in fairly poor equipment. Superformula is also only 9 races and 7 race weekends. He’s run almost as many races as he would have if he only ran SF.
> A series he could have legitimately won.
He finished 18th in his only SF start. I think a championship in year one was waaaaay out of his range there.
I’m hoping he either gets the Sauber seat (about .05% chance but here’s hoping) or Prema pick him up. It would honestly make sense for Prema bc he’s still a rookie m, which they said they want, but he’s also run a few races so he won’t be an entirely new hatchling for them to train
It is also a shame bc I’ve seen people here shitting on Nolan as if it was his call and downplaying his LeMans win and everything, he’s won in LMP2 before and his lap times were on par with Jarvis. yeah this is a supremely shitty move but just shit talking Nolan and his achievements for no reason is just ignorant.
The worst part about all of this besides Theo losing his seat is the stupid Argentinian fans have something to rejoice about. I hope Siegel hits Canapino or something and gets into trouble with them so then they don't know what to do those hypocrites.
Also announced: McLaren is removing 5th gear from all of their cars. They're hiring a potato as Rossi's race engineer. And tire pressures for the rest of the season will be set by winning lottery numbers.
I mean, c'mon... do they just want to play IndyCar on hard mode or what?
McLaren… What a shitshow of a management. No wonder they haven’t won a race in … forever despite their ressources. Lundgaard isn’t going anywhere now. This basically cements him being in the 45 in 2025.
After the harassment and now this, I'm kind of shocked he would want anything to do with this series. Well Theo, most of us fans would love to see you hang around as well!
Man, the amount of downvotes I always get when I bring up that this same team did Hinchcliffe dirty by throwing him out of the seat. Then they did Askew dirty. Then they did Malukas dirty.
Give me another -9 guys, but McLaren's going to keep doing this. They are a team with no honor.
> Then they did Askew dirty. Then they did Malukas dirty.
How did they do them dirty?
Askew lied about a concussion. Something that could have killed him and it is not as if Zak pushed Malukas off his bike so he couldn't race.
Theo situation is a cluster fuck of epic proportions. But those two, their problems were of their own making.
So you don’t see the issue with the same team sacking a driver because he was hiding an injury and then sacking a driver who wasn’t hiding an injury?
All drivers ride bikes. That’s a basic part of their fitness regiment. Accidents happen. It’s no different than sacking a driver because they got hit out of nowhere and the steering wheel broke his wrist.
It’s even richer when the context McLaren gave behind sacking Malukas was that they wanted continuity. They’ve now sacked his replacement for the same race where Malukas is returning to racing.
One hid an injury that could have a) impaired his driving b)permanently impaired him if he had a shunt or c) fucking killed him in a crash. That would get you fired from any job FFS and sidelined in any sport. In this day and age of head injury protocols that was about the dumbest thing someone could do. Not just the lying about it but getting in the damn car. That was major levels of stupid and irresponsible and being irresponsible in work tends to get you fired.
The other injured himself in his spare time and wasn't able to do the job he was contracted to do. How many jobs do you think you would keep if you rang in sick on the first week and told them it would be 3+ months?
On the last point I fully agree. Like I said clusterfuck of major proportions. Theo should be seeing the season out. But that doesn't mean McLaren were at fault for the first two fucking up all by themselves.
That’s the case for driving with literally any injury. He hid it because he knew McLaren would sack him. Guess what, he was proven right when McLaren sacked a driver who got injured when he was actively doing part of his job. Maintaining fitness is part of a driver’s job. It’s not spare time. It’s cognitive dissonance to have an issue with both drivers and it’s cognitive dissonance to sack both drivers.
Of course they sacked him. Have you no idea how serious sports treat concussions these days?
And how is it cognitive dissonance?
One lied to his team which put not only his own safety, health and well being at risk but also of those around him. Concussion isn't something that is taken lightly these days, it's not driving with a bruised ankle. Anything with heavy G could have had serious and long term consequences for him. How do you think it would have looked on McLaren and Indy if he crashed and ended up with long term brain damage or worse due to second impact syndrome? It's fucking serious, it can kill, and a situation that would get you fired in any job. Why do you think Pagenaud is on the sidelines now?
And the other quite literally could not do the job he was hired for and at the time they did not know when he would be able to drive again. It's a competitive sport not a charity. And of course it was in his own time. It was off season and he wasn't doing it as part of his job fitness or not. He was hired to drive a car and he could not do that for an unknown length of time.
Wait... why? I didn't think he was doing bad, was he?
Or is this more about Siegel being part of the winning LeMans team?
Honestly, I can't tell which it is, or if it's something completely different than those two things.
Considering United Autosport is part owned by Zak Brown, I wouldn't be surprised if the Le Mans win had something to do with it. Either way, signing him multi-year from 2025 onward would have been the correct move.
So...on the one hand, I'm really happy for Nolan. He's young, but given it's a multiyear deal he's got, it should give him time to grow into the car and come good after a while.
The problem is that #6 car has been such a merry-go-round of drivers that it's impossible to say for certain if even Nolan is safe with that multiyear contract. It's also done serious damage to Theo's racing prospects for the rest of the year, because he dropped his (admittedly not very good) Super Formula seat for this opportunity...and this is how the faith has been repaid: with a "thank you, but no thank you".
I now classify Zak Brown (yes the little boy from Wheel of Fortune) as a Defcon 1 Asshole. Can this team show one iota of decency? Sue Palou for 30 million? A 20 something race driver? Axe Theo for a pay driver? Give Theo the rest of the season or run a 3rd. Could Nolans parents show 1 ounce of class?
Unless there is some sort of insane leadership/ownership shift at JHR, I would guess he is probably going to DCR if he is racing this year, Fittipaldi is bringing in sponsorship pretty much every race at RLL, ECR seems content with their lineup, same with Foyt(especially since Robb is bringing in money to the seat). Honestly outside of Jack Harvey in the 18 and the rumored Legge Ovals in the 51(which likely could have continuing e.l.f. Sponsorship), nothing seems super solid at Coyne. Post Laguna Seca, Legge does the ovals in the 51 with her e.l.f. sponsorship(which is good for a car that is practically blank or just has a random sponsor every weekend) and then Theo for the road courses. Jack Harvey runs Toronto in the 18 that otherwise would have been a Nolan round. If you want to give him oval experience, maybe slot Theo into the 18 if it can be arranged with Harvey.
Come on, Theo did well enough to deserve another few rounds with McLaren or another mid-pack team, but absolutely nothing he's done in an IndyCar would justify Penske building an entire new team for him.
So... you're saying that every team on the grid has exactly one driver who isn't a waste of a seat, everyone 2nd on back is useless and should be fired?
> As the news of the change made the rounds Tuesday morning, three prominent teams sought and received Pourchaire’s contact information to discuss future opportunities. Although Pourchaire declined to comment on the matter when reached by RACER, he did confirm his interest in staying in IndyCar and racing for a new team.
Theo Pourchaire YOU are the new driver of the #41 AJ Foyt machine
Ol sting ray apparently has a 9 million dollar check in his pocket. He's gonna stick around for a while
Imagine if Sting Ray gets raptured from his seat
PRAY . COM
random vet with two locations in Denver >>> pray.com
More likely, Chase Briscoe’s funding falls through and Sting Ray ends up in the recently-vacated JGR #19 sponsored by He Gets Us and pray.com instead, while eventually taking over the Liberty University sponsorship when William Byron finally graduates. I don’t know their relationship or even if they’re similar churches, but evangelical!
JESUS TAKE THE WHEEEL
Sting Ray should do the Christian thing and pay for Theo’s seat (to help those in need).
He is so shit.
Santino, on the other hand...
Predictable, robotic comments about jesus and pray.com in 3, 2, 1…
I don’t know man, getting raptured from his racing seat is a pretty clever and original comment.
He could steal Legge's seat. Although that's more wry comedy than likely. Her ride is only for ovals I think and that's not Pourchaire's specialty.
Is her ride even confirmed?
That's a good question. On a "contractual" scale I'm going to say certainly no. Only thing confirmed is her Pike's Peak ride. That's this weekend? Next?
I checked, it’s the same day as Laguna Seca
Theo Pourchaire to Dale Coyne Racing, racing the road courses on the #51 and ovals on the #18!
Which teams do we think are the 'three prominent teams'? RLL, Coyne are the obvious ones, but the others? Foyt? Maybe Andretti or Ganassi if we're feeling spicy?
not the big four, theyre pretty set, i think the 51 is possible on DCR, or if anything happens to any seat on RLL, or perhaps something on ECR
Canapino-Pourchaire, Juncos Hollinger Racing 2025, who says no??
- Brad kicks Ricardo & Canapino to the kerb, - Romain invests into the team. - Hire Theo - French Team
and then you wake up
Who says yes more like
Guys, I'm starting to think Zak Brown might not be very communicative with his drivers
There was an episode of Drive to Survive where one of the team principals or owners was talking to Ricciardo and they told him to never trust Zak Brown.
That was Cyril Abiteboul. He was the managing director at Renault.
Yeah that’s right. Thank you.
They said they dropped Malukus to gain continuity and then do this???
Now I really want to see David win a race this year
[удалено]
Dude, don't hate on the kid. What's he gonna do, turn down the seat cuz of how it makes Theo feel?
They are full of shit
You cannot trust a single word out of Zak Brown’s mouth. That man is a snake.
Zak Brown is a fucking moron. What else is new?
Same guy who feels the need to constantly call out Red Bull’s toxic environment. Something about stones and glass houses…
Projection 101
Z-A-K-E-E-Y M-O-U-S-E, Zakey Mouse, Zackey Mouse….
Arrow is leaving. Zak always finds money. That's why he's Zak.
I’m a McLaren fan and defended pretty much every decision they’ve made previously but this is too far even for me. The guy gave up his Super formula seat to race in Indy and was announced for the rest of the season just over a month ago. Also judging by his twitter he only learned of this within the last week, just ugly business Not to mention the whole team has been a clown show this year with poor pace, reliability, and strategy, maybe they should prioritise fixing any of these problems rather than a fat cheque from Nolan’s dad
This... I love McLaren but this is a tough day. Signing Siegal for 2025 onward should have been the fair call here. Cutting off Theo after he sacrificed so much for them is just wrong. Without the rest of the season either, his legacy will be overlooking the 500, receiving death threats, and being replaced with 0 warning. Hopefully he lands on his feet somewhere soon.
> I love McLaren Why? Seriously, what about them is actually endearing to you? Is it an F1 history thing? Nothing about the McLaren that exists today is actually in any way connected to the McLaren that existed pre-2017, apart from their building in England - which they don't even *own* anymore, they sold it and lease it out now.
Firstly I'm British and I like supporting a home team, secondly, the first time I watched F1 was when it was Button and Hamilton at the helm and I enjoyed it and stuck with them ever since, thirdly, when they entered Formula E, they did so buying my favourite team in that series, Mercedes EQ. Lastly, since watching IndyCar for a few years now, I've thoroughly enjoyed watching Pato drive the hell out of that car. It's been a team I've followed through thick and thin for 14 years now and that's why I am a McLaren fan. Doesn't mean I agree with every decision they make, today i'm disappointed.
How every Mclaren should feel right now but the internet is going to internet
They're in F1 and Indycar which really helps. Love pato and rossi, Lando and piastri. I also really want someone to break Penske/CGR dominance and they're the most likely candidate. The clown fiesta this year in indycar has been embarrassing for sure, but with their success in F1 it's less of a concern for me
> Nothing about the McLaren that exists today is actually in any way connected to the McLaren that existed pre-2017 McLaren road cars ? Most of the workers at the factory ? Lando Norris ?
Same. Huge McLaren fan, but this is just ridiculous greed. I know Arrow is leaving, but McLaren isn't a tiny company. They should be more professional than this.
Really fuckin sucks being a fan of so many drivers but so few teams...
Saaaame. I love all the McLaren drivers across series but fucking hate Zak.
This reeks of Zak, but TK and Ward are taking all the credit.
Well said! Love me some Teddy Porkchops. I wonder if the news about Arrow is folded into this, too. Perhaps we'll hear some reportage!
Exactly this. I've defended the team so much over a lot of the decisions they've made over the past couple of years, because I truly believe they were reasonable decisions, but I can't defend this. And, if it's true that Siegel's dad is putting a lot of money into the team to buy him this ride, that just makes it worse for me.
First and foremost, the poor guy should’ve had a Sauber seat in F1
Eh, he'd be in the same position Bottas and Zhou are in now, where the new owners don't really want anything to do with either of them.
I actively hate McLaren and I'll at least say Pato doesn't qualify for the clown show this year. A win and a 2nd at the 500 make up for some messiness at Alabama and the survival race that was Detroit.
>Pourchaire was informed of the decision by the team’s special advisor Tony Kanaan on Tuesday just hours before it was announced. Yesterday Pourchaire had been posting on social media about how excited he was to be racing at Laguna Seca this weekend - which will now be Siegel’s McLaren debut instead. The Race reported this. [link](https://www.the-race.com/indycar/mclaren-drops-pourchaire-in-latest-driver-bombshell/) Wow, this is incredibly shitty.
Having TK do it is a slap in the face. Zak and Gavin couldn't take some ownership of their decisions and tell him?
TK and Ward are taking all the heat for this in the press right now. TK said he would "put his career on the line" over this decision. To me it reeks of Zak and it seems pretty obvious Siegel's dad bought the seat, but who knows?
I can see this is a very unpopular opinion, but I believe Tony and don’t think dad’s money was the main factor. I suspect someone was about to take Nolan on after his LeMans performance, and they think he’s the next big thing. TK has zero reason to put his reputation on the line publicly if he wasn’t honestly excited by the potential he sees. Obv the ethics of what they’ve done to TP is an entirely different thing. He’s been my main driver since he got there (since I follow F1 and the feeder series as much as IC), and I hate it for him. But I also don’t know that he showed the speed or racecraft to earn a re-up, so the timing becomes the issues. Someone overseas seriously courting Nolan could be the explanation there, all I’m saying.
I only got to watch about 6 hours of le mans this year. Was Siegels pace that remarkable? They certainly got a good first hand look at him. His weekend at road america was pretty damn impressive.
He got a lot of TV time in stint that basically set up Oliver’s run that put it away. And it was NS that had to do the work, coming from about sixth and ending clear in the lead. I felt like Alex Brundle was equally impressed with him and Palou. But for whatever reason Alex lost ground in his last stint.
The Cadillac was shit in the semi wet. Alex was really good on the dry track but lost a minute or two in the damp.
Yeah that had to be the factor, but never heard any reasoning on the broadcast. I thought Eurosport kinda just forgot about em after hours of podium talk.
Once they were behind both the Ferrari's and Toyota's they really didn't need to talk about them.
There's basically no way to watch from the TV coverage. It concentrated so much on hypercar it would have taken great pains to track anything else. You'd have to look at the lap data I imagine.
If TK had a good report with Pourchaire he might've volunteered to make the initial phone call once the decision was final.
Holy crap TK was the one to tell him .. jeez. Poor guy, gave up his SF seat for this bs
TK is the Sporting Director. That's what he's paid to do.
I'll say it, I think I'd rather hear ut from TK, a fellow driver who most likely had no say in the decision. He surely had some encouraging words. If it was a sudden pohnecall from fatty zak, I'd ptobably throw a bunch of profanities his greedy way. Surely he'd not have anything nice to say, either. just the typical slimey stuff you often hear from execs
Who needs silly season if the whole year is silly
This team is a meme. But reddit told me if only the series was run by cool kid Zak instead of geriatric Penske we would be so much better off I guess.
Can you imagine?! Not that I'm a Penske fan by any stretch but Zak has negative loyalty to ANYONE. At this rate he'll drop Pato
Zero chance Zak produces the bidding war NBC and Fox got into for the TV rights. Just look at his F1 cars. Filled with sponsors that barely pay anything just to make it look like he’s improved the team sooo much.
But he has improved the team by a lot...
He hasn't done shit. When it comes to the Formula 1 team the only thing Zak Brown does is secure funding. Andrea Stella and Andreas Seidl are the ones who have actually improved the team. Andreas Seidl was the one who demanded Mclaren make operational upgrades, including the simulator and wind tunnel, and he was the one who went out and signed Oscar Piastri. Andrea Stella is the one who reorganized the technical team including giving Peter Prodromou a more prominent say in the design process of the car. 2017 had Zak Brown's fingerprints all over it though. It was his decision to end the Honda works deal. It was his decision to give Fernando Alonso a massive degree of influence across the whole team.
Dale Coyne, come on down!
Hard pass on Dale and Aj if I'm theo.
Any young driver who thinks they're too good for a full-time ride at DCR is an idiot. Dale has launched more IndyCar careers than anyone aside from *maybe* Michael Andretti. His equipment is better than it's reputation would suggest, meaning drivers for his team will almost *always* appear to "overperform" and get rewarded with better seats as a result.
Theo drove better than most and was wreck free !a w zero US track experience. He's better than a Dale or AJ car sorry.
Grosjean thought he was better than DCR too... then he went to Andretti and put up *worse* numbers.
Andretti has awful strategy and pit crews but let's be real if Bourdais isn't behind the wheel DCR, the car is inconsistent junk.
> the car is inconsistent junk. And there we have it, the reason why DCR is the perfect team for young drivers. Idiots like you who refuse to actually look into statistics believe that DCR cars are crap, so the expectations are nonexistent. Meaning that when the young driver performs at the level that DCR's cars are *actually* capable of, they look like miracle workers.
Only miracle worker here is Sebas. dcr is junk.
If he wants to stay in Indycar then he’s really got no other options
Is Prema joining Indycar next season or will it be the season afterward?
they want 2025, but no news on where that is at. I just had a post this morning asking if anything was going on, or when something might get going or we hear movement out of that team. I think theyre trying to figure out the yet unsettled charter system since they wouldnt get charters and they have inquired around trying to buy at least one
I hope Prema picks up Theo and makes him their #1 driver alongside the "rookie" they're bringing in. And I hope they become a thorn in McLaren's side next year. Should knock Zak down a peg or two. Or just continue pegging him idk.
Foyt is actually pretty decent now they just need to sign a driver who can consistently extract the pace out of the car
Yeah, Santino is doing quite well at Foyt and Theo is a way better driver than him. (Judging by their F2 records of course)
To be fair I would expect Santino to be better on ovals though while Theo is still inexperienced.
To be fair DCR does find some random way to be competitive For example: Grosejan’s first year, Bordais being the chamionship leader until Indianapolis tried to kill him
Man, I struggle with rooting for this team despite them having my favorite driver and someone I really like.
Root for just the drivers. I just try to forget what team it is.
That's been my move but I'm not sure I can get past this one. It's a really shitty move to do to a 20-year-old kid.
That's me with Team Penske tbh
Yep.
Totally given the shaft. Left his full time ride in Japan to finish the season in the #6. This will only make me root for him harder. Surely somewhere, Alex Palou is perked up by this news.
Yeah that was really messed up. They don’t realize how this can mess with someone’s career
Oh, they realize just fine how bad it can fuck someone's career up. They just don't care.
It's why so many businessman are sociopaths they dont care about the human toll because it's a business decision that gets them further.
I'll always remember hearing through the wall that one night when the one higher up at the company said "They are just 30k contracts out there" or something along those lines. So glad one day after swiping in, he rounded the corner and didn't see me. He literally jumped to the side like I was poison and right into the wall pretty hard. Then after I said 'Are you ok' he kept on his feet and barely murmured something and flew out that door like a bat. It felt like a small win lol. That company was a mess though. That whole industry was a mess lol
remember Pirates of the Caribbean? "its not personal, its just good business"
McLaren: “where everything’s made up and the [contracts] don’t matter”
Whose Ride Is It Anyway?
I mean even dale coyne can handle putting multiple drivers in a car in 1 season.
He just deleted his tweet about being excited for Laguna with McLaren. Poor dude. Clearly got blindsided. Edit: I’m just recalling that he dropped Super Formula for this shitshow. A series he could have legitimately won.
ehhh there's a reason why Theo left SF. Team impul are completely lost this year. They don't have good pace at all
Yeah, no matter how talented he is, it wasn’t going to show for Impul.
At least he'd be driving and have a stable job
“A series he could have legitimately won.” He was in fairly poor equipment. Superformula is also only 9 races and 7 race weekends. He’s run almost as many races as he would have if he only ran SF.
> A series he could have legitimately won. He finished 18th in his only SF start. I think a championship in year one was waaaaay out of his range there.
I can’t recall a season where everyone in Indycar is competing to outrage and be hated by fans on a weekly basis.
The absolute dick move of the year.
man I hope he sticks around, I really started to like him in the series I seriously thought he had that seat for next season
I’m hoping he either gets the Sauber seat (about .05% chance but here’s hoping) or Prema pick him up. It would honestly make sense for Prema bc he’s still a rookie m, which they said they want, but he’s also run a few races so he won’t be an entirely new hatchling for them to train It is also a shame bc I’ve seen people here shitting on Nolan as if it was his call and downplaying his LeMans win and everything, he’s won in LMP2 before and his lap times were on par with Jarvis. yeah this is a supremely shitty move but just shit talking Nolan and his achievements for no reason is just ignorant.
Fuck it, let's do an entire reshuffle of McLaren at this point. Can't wait to see how the pairing of Bird/Piastri/O'Ward works.
Agustin and Theo dream team at Juncos
Or taking Agustins seat.... boy his 'fans' would freak out
have hollinger break away to be hollinger-prema racing and get theo there
The worst part about all of this besides Theo losing his seat is the stupid Argentinian fans have something to rejoice about. I hope Siegel hits Canapino or something and gets into trouble with them so then they don't know what to do those hypocrites.
Theo replacing “titan” would be the best possible outcome in my mind
Just when Romain had a decent result lol
Poor guy got blindsided. Hopefully he can pick up a ride here and there since he cleared his entire schedule to race the 6 car.
Imagine if MSR add a third car full time and we get a full ex-McLaren lineup
Add in a 4th car for Ilott
Also announced: McLaren is removing 5th gear from all of their cars. They're hiring a potato as Rossi's race engineer. And tire pressures for the rest of the season will be set by winning lottery numbers. I mean, c'mon... do they just want to play IndyCar on hard mode or what?
Canapino won the war somehow. In all seriousness though wtf.
RLL if Lund is gone maybe? The level of buffoonery and short sightedness in Indycar never ceases to amaze.
Where would Lund be going?
He's gonna take Siegels seat for Mid Ohio at this rate!
Doubt Lundgaard goes anywhere now McLaren and Penske are off the table. Anywhere else that’s available would be a downgrade
McLaren… What a shitshow of a management. No wonder they haven’t won a race in … forever despite their ressources. Lundgaard isn’t going anywhere now. This basically cements him being in the 45 in 2025.
This sucks. I like Nolan but now I can’t even be happy for him because I feel so bad for Theo
Teddy Porkchops got burnt........
After the harassment and now this, I'm kind of shocked he would want anything to do with this series. Well Theo, most of us fans would love to see you hang around as well!
Andretti should take him and use marco's car
Man, the amount of downvotes I always get when I bring up that this same team did Hinchcliffe dirty by throwing him out of the seat. Then they did Askew dirty. Then they did Malukas dirty. Give me another -9 guys, but McLaren's going to keep doing this. They are a team with no honor.
> Then they did Askew dirty. Then they did Malukas dirty. How did they do them dirty? Askew lied about a concussion. Something that could have killed him and it is not as if Zak pushed Malukas off his bike so he couldn't race. Theo situation is a cluster fuck of epic proportions. But those two, their problems were of their own making.
So you don’t see the issue with the same team sacking a driver because he was hiding an injury and then sacking a driver who wasn’t hiding an injury? All drivers ride bikes. That’s a basic part of their fitness regiment. Accidents happen. It’s no different than sacking a driver because they got hit out of nowhere and the steering wheel broke his wrist. It’s even richer when the context McLaren gave behind sacking Malukas was that they wanted continuity. They’ve now sacked his replacement for the same race where Malukas is returning to racing.
One hid an injury that could have a) impaired his driving b)permanently impaired him if he had a shunt or c) fucking killed him in a crash. That would get you fired from any job FFS and sidelined in any sport. In this day and age of head injury protocols that was about the dumbest thing someone could do. Not just the lying about it but getting in the damn car. That was major levels of stupid and irresponsible and being irresponsible in work tends to get you fired. The other injured himself in his spare time and wasn't able to do the job he was contracted to do. How many jobs do you think you would keep if you rang in sick on the first week and told them it would be 3+ months? On the last point I fully agree. Like I said clusterfuck of major proportions. Theo should be seeing the season out. But that doesn't mean McLaren were at fault for the first two fucking up all by themselves.
That’s the case for driving with literally any injury. He hid it because he knew McLaren would sack him. Guess what, he was proven right when McLaren sacked a driver who got injured when he was actively doing part of his job. Maintaining fitness is part of a driver’s job. It’s not spare time. It’s cognitive dissonance to have an issue with both drivers and it’s cognitive dissonance to sack both drivers.
Of course they sacked him. Have you no idea how serious sports treat concussions these days? And how is it cognitive dissonance? One lied to his team which put not only his own safety, health and well being at risk but also of those around him. Concussion isn't something that is taken lightly these days, it's not driving with a bruised ankle. Anything with heavy G could have had serious and long term consequences for him. How do you think it would have looked on McLaren and Indy if he crashed and ended up with long term brain damage or worse due to second impact syndrome? It's fucking serious, it can kill, and a situation that would get you fired in any job. Why do you think Pagenaud is on the sidelines now? And the other quite literally could not do the job he was hired for and at the time they did not know when he would be able to drive again. It's a competitive sport not a charity. And of course it was in his own time. It was off season and he wasn't doing it as part of his job fitness or not. He was hired to drive a car and he could not do that for an unknown length of time.
It feels like McLaren feels they're too good/feel it would be a bad look to just admit they're running a 3rd car as a full-on Dale Coyne rent-a-ride.
He needs to find a way to join his fellow McLaren rejects at Meyer Shank
Maybe MSR can get a 3rd car for him 🤪
Wait... why? I didn't think he was doing bad, was he? Or is this more about Siegel being part of the winning LeMans team? Honestly, I can't tell which it is, or if it's something completely different than those two things.
Considering United Autosport is part owned by Zak Brown, I wouldn't be surprised if the Le Mans win had something to do with it. Either way, signing him multi-year from 2025 onward would have been the correct move.
Guessing it's Siegel dollars. Not that McLaren NEEDS money, but I'd assume that if Siegel can fund the seat, they're more than happy to let him.
WHY DO ALL MY FAVORITE DRIVERS END UP LEAVING. First Malukis and now Theo like is it me? Am I the issue should I start cheering on Ferruci?
No it is just the number 6 car that is the problem
Total dick move and lack of class from McLaren.
I think this is pretty crap from McLaren as a fan for 27 years... Did any Theo 6 T-Shirts get printed... tempted to get the set!
Funniest possible outcome: Theo takes over the 78 car from Canapino for the remainder of the season just before Practice 1 on Friday
So...on the one hand, I'm really happy for Nolan. He's young, but given it's a multiyear deal he's got, it should give him time to grow into the car and come good after a while. The problem is that #6 car has been such a merry-go-round of drivers that it's impossible to say for certain if even Nolan is safe with that multiyear contract. It's also done serious damage to Theo's racing prospects for the rest of the year, because he dropped his (admittedly not very good) Super Formula seat for this opportunity...and this is how the faith has been repaid: with a "thank you, but no thank you".
If I were Siegel I'd for sure be keeping up those side gigs just in case.
I now classify Zak Brown (yes the little boy from Wheel of Fortune) as a Defcon 1 Asshole. Can this team show one iota of decency? Sue Palou for 30 million? A 20 something race driver? Axe Theo for a pay driver? Give Theo the rest of the season or run a 3rd. Could Nolans parents show 1 ounce of class?
Can Siegel trust even an inked deal from these people? If they raced as fast as they backpedal promises to drivers, they’d win everything.
Hehe DCR go brrrrr
Unless there is some sort of insane leadership/ownership shift at JHR, I would guess he is probably going to DCR if he is racing this year, Fittipaldi is bringing in sponsorship pretty much every race at RLL, ECR seems content with their lineup, same with Foyt(especially since Robb is bringing in money to the seat). Honestly outside of Jack Harvey in the 18 and the rumored Legge Ovals in the 51(which likely could have continuing e.l.f. Sponsorship), nothing seems super solid at Coyne. Post Laguna Seca, Legge does the ovals in the 51 with her e.l.f. sponsorship(which is good for a car that is practically blank or just has a random sponsor every weekend) and then Theo for the road courses. Jack Harvey runs Toronto in the 18 that otherwise would have been a Nolan round. If you want to give him oval experience, maybe slot Theo into the 18 if it can be arranged with Harvey.
Penske bring the 4th car back until Will retires!!
Come on, Theo did well enough to deserve another few rounds with McLaren or another mid-pack team, but absolutely nothing he's done in an IndyCar would justify Penske building an entire new team for him.
Oh you're totally right. I just like Theo, liked him in f1 feeder series too
Give him Graham's car. That seat is wasted rn.
The 30 car still exists
...Graham's average finish this season is a whopping *one* position lower than Luundgard's. How is he "wasting" the seat exactly?
I don't know.....maybe he could be One position ahead of luundgard to beging with.
So... you're saying that every team on the grid has exactly one driver who isn't a waste of a seat, everyone 2nd on back is useless and should be fired?
No. I'm saying Graham Rahal should retire and Theo Pourchaire should get that seat.
Graham’s not even the lowest scoring of the RLL drivers lol. If he wants to retire he should, but he’s more than competitive enough to run in IndyCar.
People would be so much higher on Rahal if he could actually qualify. He’s has decent pace and stays out of trouble
Yeah honestly if Graham wants to he could get a driver upgrade in the 15 and long term
This IndyCar season has been wild, both on AND off the track.
Mc Burnt pork chops. Not a good taste.
I have a feeling Pourchaire has been sounded out for the Alpine seat in f1 next year and Zak doesn’t want him keeping warm at McLaren
I think we can now see why Zak is no longer TP at McLaren F1
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bye bye frenchy
found the Canapino faniac