IndyCar: Marcus Ericsson coming into his own in IndyCar

Just three races into his IndyCar career, Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie and former Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson is coming into his own.

Marcus Ericsson entered the 2018 Formula 1 season having driven in the sport on a full-time basis since the 2014 season. But by the time the 2018 season ended, he had a ride lined up for the 2019 season — in IndyCar.

With Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Robert Wickens having been paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a nasty crash in last August’s IndyCar race at Pocono Raceway, the 28-year-old Swede was hired to take over as James Hinchcliffe’s teammate for the 2019 season.

That said, Ericsson is technically not considered Wickens’s replacement since Wickens drove the #6 Honda, which is still available for him whenever he can return, and Ericsson drives the #7 Honda.

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Just three races into his IndyCar career, Ericsson is already coming into his own. While his average starting position of 18.0 is the third worst average starting position among the average starting positions of the sport’s 20 full-time drivers, he has already proven that he can compete for solid results during races themselves.

Ericsson struggled in the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida after starting in 18th place before he was ultimately forced to retire on lap 55 of the 110-lap race due to a water pressure issue. He was officially scored in 20th as a result of this retirement.

Ericsson’s qualifying effort of 16th place in the season’s second race at Circuit of the Americas was and still is his career-high qualifying effort, illustrating the struggles that he has faced in qualifying, but he managed to work his way up into the top five late in the race. Had it not been for a penalty that he was issued during his final pit stop for an unsafe release from his pit box, he very well could have finished on the podium.

For the season’s third race at Barber Motorsports Park, Ericsson qualified in a career-low 20th place. Although this Birmingham, Alabama natural terrain road course is a track where it can be quite challenging to pass, the rookie was the race’s biggest mover. He finished 13 positions ahead of where he started to earn a career-high seventh place result.

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How much longer will it be before Marcus Ericsson earns the first top five finish, the first podium finish and perhaps the first victory of his IndyCar career? With how he has performed in both of the last two races, all three of these instances could take place a lot sooner than a lot of people expect them to.