IndyCar: McLaren announcement purposely leaves out one detail

While Felix Rosenqvist is set to remain with McLaren for the 2023 season, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will retain his IndyCar seat.

Earlier this week, McLaren confirmed that Felix Rosenqvist is set to remain with the organization for the 2023 season. Last year, Rosenqvist joined the Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar team as the driver of the #7 Chevrolet after spending his first two seasons driving the #10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.

However, what was not confirmed in this announcement is the 30-year-old Swede’s true destination for 2023.

There is no guarantee that he will be back behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet.

Here is an excerpt from the release, confirming that his IndyCar future is still up in the air.

"“McLaren Racing is currently in the process of evaluating its driver line-ups for 2023 with the newly formed McLaren Formula E Team set to embark on its debut season in the all-electric racing series and plans to expand Arrow McLaren SP into a three-car team with Felix set to be driving in one of the two series. … The full Arrow McLaren SP and McLaren Formula E 2023 driver line-ups will be confirmed in due course.”"

Earlier this year, McLaren announced that they will enter Formula E in the 2022-2023 season by purchasing the Mercedes-EQ team. Rosenqvist competed in Formula E for Mahindra in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons, winning three races.

There has long been speculation that, even with Arrow McLaren SP expanding to three cars for the 2023 IndyCar season, Rosenqvist could be replaced.

The fact that Rosenqvist has since been confirmed by the team — but not specifically the IndyCar operation — will only continue to fuel speculation about who will end up in his seat, especially since a contract extension with McLaren, not specifically Arrow McLaren SP, had previously been seen as a formality.

It marks the second McLaren driver confirmation for 2023 that was missing one key detail. While the contract extension for Pato O’Ward was pretty straightforward, the announcement of Arrow McLaren SP’s addition of current Andretti Autosport driver Alexander Rossi for 2023 was not as straightforward, as it was not confirmed which car he is set to drive.

Will Rossi replace Rosenqvist behind the wheel of the #7 Chevrolet? Will he truly drive the third car? Even if he does drive the third car, will Rosenqvist still be replaced?

Interestingly, Tony Kanaan recently stated that neither Rosenqvist nor Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, a driver who had been rumored as a possible Arrow McLaren SP driver for next year, would be in that seat. Kanaan stated that “people will fall off their chairs” when they know.

The fact that it was the Chip Ganassi Racing driver who offered such insight led many to speculate that reigning series champion Alex Palou, or perhaps even six-time Scott Dixon, could make the shocking move to leave Chip Ganassi’s team and join O’Ward and Rossi at the rising Chevrolet team next year.