McLaren must overcome temptation as patience is inevitably tested

Arrow McLaren recently solidified their driver lineup for the 2025 IndyCar season and beyond, signing Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Christian Lundgaard to replace Alexander Rossi behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolet.

The move came after the team unexpectedly cut ties with Theo Pourchaire and put Nolan Siegel behind the wheel of the No. 6 Chevrolet. Pato O'Ward remains signed to drive the No. 5 Chevrolet through 2027.

With Lundgaard and Siegel said to be on multi-year deals, Arrow McLaren's young lineup, featuring an average age of just 22 years, would appear to be set through at least the 2026 season, giving them the stability they claimed to be searching for before they released David Malukas earlier in the year.

Malukas, who was signed after the team missed out on Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou for the second year in a row, had been sidelined for the season's first four races with an injury he suffered in a preseason mountain biking incident, allowing the team to trigger a clause in his contract to let him go. Callum Ilott and Pourchaire filled in for him.

Given McLaren's history, not only with Malukas on the IndyCar side but with Pourchaire and even with Daniel Ricciardo on the Formula 1 side, how much stock should we be putting into a supposed "long-term" commitment?

This is a team that has now signed 15 drivers to compete alongside O'Ward since they entered IndyCar via a partnership with the existing Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team back in 2020. While O'Ward has been with the team from the start, it has been constant turnover in the other car (and, since 2023, cars, plural).

And whenever their patience has been tested, they've jumped at the opportunity to make a change.

Lundgaard is a proven talent and race winner with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and he won't get the chance to compete for Arrow McLaren this year. But Siegel has already had that opportunity, and suffice it to say that there is a lot of work to be done.

There's no doubt that Siegel has the talent and the know-how to get the job done. But so does Malukas, and so does Pourchaire, and that ultimately meant next to nothing when it came time for McLaren to decide whether it was (already) time to move on.

Malukas drove exactly zero races on his multi-year deal, and Pourchaire, after signing with McLaren for the final 12 races of the 2024 season, competed in exactly two of them.

Siegel impressed in his Arrow McLaren debut, placing 12th at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca after starting in 23rd and overcoming a mid-race spin. But he went on to finish in 20th at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in a race won by O'Ward. Rossi, who finished on the podium at Laguna Seca, finished the same race in sixth.

If McLaren are indeed prepared for the long haul, they can't expect Siegel to perform well right away. But this is a team that has shown quicker pace when it comes to buyer's remorse than when it comes to their pace on the race track itself, having just taken their first true race day victory in nearly two years.

How long into his "multi-year deal" does he have to prove himself, and what are the odds that all three of the drivers McLaren have under contract through 2025 run the full 2025 season?

Sporting director Tony Kanaan reportedly put his job on the line to make sure that the team secured Siegel's services, convinced he would sign with a rival organization if the move wasn't made. It cost Pourchaire his seat with 10 races remaining in the season.

Who's to say another shiny new irresistible free agent becoming available won't cost Siegel his? We all know that there are details and clauses in every driver's contract that aren't disclosed to the public.

After Palou backed out on his deal last year, McLaren CEO Zak Brown stated that "we want drivers invested in the team". But are the team willing to return that same level of investment, or will a rough stretch of races from Siegel result in yet another early driver change?

If stability is the name of the game, there shouldn't even be a discussion about further turnover at McLaren.

But the pursuit of stability was now brought up three driver changes ago. Pourchaire had been performing well, Rossi has continued his resurgent season, and Malukas has been performing exceptionally well at his new team, Meyer Shank Racing, after never getting the chance to compete at McLaren. Should we really discount the possibility of a fourth?