Felix Rosenqvist will move from McLaren to Meyer Shank Racing next year in IndyCar, taking the place of Simon Pagenaud who is still unable to race due to injury.
Pagenaud suffered a huge, barrel-rolling crash at Mid-Ohio in July which left him with concussion symptoms and forced him to miss the second half of the season. Three different drivers have been called up as stand-ins as IndyCar’s medical team has not cleared Pagenaud to return to the cockpit. Two of those drivers have now secured full-time seats for 2024.Pagenaud acknowledged his departure from Meyer Shank in a statement. While he gave no indication of his future plans, and the start of next season is six months away, the unpredictability of the recovery timeline from a head injury makes it unclear when or if he might return to IndyCar.
“I would like to wish MSR all the best, and thank Mike Shank, Jim Meyer and the whole team for the valuable experiences I have gathered through the last two years,” said Pagenaud. “I wish we could have achieved more together over the last two seasons and win races but we could not make it happen.
“For now my goal is to fully focus on myself and recuperating. It is a slow process and I will continue to work with the doctors and do what is necessary to get my health back to 100%. Thank you all for your continued support and kind messages.”
Rosenqvist scored his best IndyCar result since 2020 last weekend, finishing second at the Grand Prix of Portland. It was his second podium of the year, and this weekend’s season finale will be his 48th and final race with McLaren, who he joined in 2021.
His first two years in IndyCar prior to that were spent at Chip Ganassi Racing. His rookie season remaining his highest-scoring campaign. He is currently 12th in the 2023 standings.
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“I’m super-excited to start the next chapter of my IndyCar career together with MSR,” said Rosenqvist, who has signed a multi-year deal with his new team.
“This will be a great opportunity for myself and MSR to elevate and get to the next level together. I’m also pretty excited to get to work with my old friend Tom Blomqvist again. I’m ready to start working together and getting the next season started.”
Blomqvist, who this weekend is standing in for Pagenaud for a third time, will be the team’s other full-time driver alongside Rosenqvist next year.
“We’re very excited to have our 2024 IndyCar plans finalised and to welcome Felix to the team,” said Mike Shank. “Felix has been someone that has been on our radar for quite some time now and everything lined up this year to work something out with him.
“It’s no secret that we’ve had a difficult season, with some things out of our control and some things in our control. I think we are all looking forward to resetting completely, starting over and getting to work. I think Tom and Felix will work great together and really feed off of each other.”
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Adam (@rocketpanda)
5th September 2023, 14:59
I really like Rosenqvist. I remember watching him in Formula E, he always seemed so strong – I rather wished he’d stayed long enough there to grab a title as often if felt like it was just a matter of time. I’d always quietly hoped he’d find his way to F1 eventually.
Don
5th September 2023, 15:42
A bummer for Simon to lose his seat after the accident (get well), but congrats to Felix. One of the most likeable guys in the series.
RandomMallard
5th September 2023, 21:44
Nice to see Rosenqvist will remain in Indy, and in a decent, even if not top-of-the-field, team set-up as well. But would echo the best wishes to Simon in his recovery though!
Seppefan
6th September 2023, 20:44
Just possible that Shank will create the correct chemistry for Rosenqvist to win and become more consistent. Blomqvist seemed a bit lost last weekend but early days. Let’s hope the engineering side improves. I expect to see Pagenaud in sports cars or more likely management. Hope he is ok.
Helio still being around will be positive.