The reigning Formula 2 champion, Theo Pourchaire, recently made one of the best IndyCar debuts in recent memory.
Okay, 11th place isn’t the kind of result that would normally blow your socks off, but until Friday practice for his first outing in place of the injured David Malukas at Arrow McLaren, Pourchaire had never driven an IndyCar, and turning his last-minute call-up into such a strong result from 22nd on the grid – as top rookie and with the most positions gained of anyone in the race – shows just how good this was.
He was also on pace with the team’s top Long Beach performer, Alexander Rossi, and there are still more standout metrics from his debut that we haven’t covered yet.
Let’s go into Pourchaire’s race in detail, hear what he thought of it in an exclusive interview, and consider what it might imply for his future at McLaren or elsewhere.
Pourchaire, a Sauber Formula 1 junior and reserve, was “emotional” when interviewed immediately after stepping out of the car post-race.
They came, saw, and dominated the streets of Long Beach.
Hear from the drivers after 85 laps of racing at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. 👇
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar), April 22, 2024.
“It was a very good weekend,” he told The Race after taking time to talk with the squad.
“I was well on the pace despite not knowing the car or the track. It’s difficult because IndyCar is extremely fast and has very bumpy tracks; one mistake and you’re in the wall at Long Beach.
“Overall, I’m proud with my performance, the crew, and the number six car performance. I need to appreciate the team for that.
“They helped me quite a lot and I’m a little bit tired now, but I get mover of the race [most positions gained] – a small trophy, of course, it’s not the one we want, but it’s a good start.”
How His Race unfolded
Pourchaire had performed well in qualifying but struggled to nail the lap when it counted after only a few circuits on the Firestone soft tyre. He began 22nd.
He swiftly gained positions by passing Christian Rasmussen on lap one, Rossi for 20th on lap three, Agustin Canapino on lap four, and then taking advantage of teammate Pato O’Ward’s drive-through to smash into Rossi on lap 10 to move up to 18th. He remained there until lap 15, when a yellow flag turned the race upside down.
Eleven vehicles chose to stay out under this caution, while Will Power headed a group that dived into the pits and attempted to finish the race on one more stop, but the group that stayed out would still require two – but could be significantly less conservative with fuel and tyres.
Pourchaire admits to feeling “a little lost” as the two strategies diverged, but he had committed to trying not to absorb too much information during the race so he could focus on getting to know an IndyCar over the course of the race.
Dixon’s improbable Long Beach victory explained
“I was trying to focus only on the driving, the team was helping me on that side, not giving me too much information,” he said.
“I was following them [the team], and if they said ‘box’, I went in it.
“I was not disputing with them, but simply following them. Because they helped me so much, I can trust them. They trusted me. And in the end, we achieved an excellent result.”
McLaren kept Pourchaire out during the lap 15 caution, and he jumped to eighth when the rest pitted, losing one spot to Rossi before pitting on lap 29.
Pourchaire began on the hard tyre, which he disliked, and then ran the middle stint on used softs before switching to a fresh set of softs for the 26-lap run to the finish after making his final stop on lap 59, when the order became clearer as the two opposing strategies converged.
Pourchaire was 18th in the final stretch, with Rossi leading the way, and the pair breezed into the teens to finish 10th and 11th.
Only one of the vehicles Pourchaire passed, Rinus VeeKay, had the same plan as his, and he had pitted sooner in each of his stops.
However, as we witnessed with the other leaders failing to pass winner Scott Dixon – one of the drivers on the ultra-fuel-saving plan – it was not an easy task to pass the cars on that other strategy, even if they were conserving fuel and had older tyres.
Pourchaire set a faster lap than Rossi, finishing eighth overall, sixth in-lap, and 14th out-lap.
Out-laps, in particular, are one of IndyCar’s black arts due to the cold tires, and the tight pit exit at Long Beach makes it all too easy to make a mistake on chilly rubber.
Even though he had done in-and-out laps in F2 and Super Formula, neither was with such a large car loaded with fuel. In IndyCar, some drivers must practice in and out laps for years before mastering the skill.
Pourchaire noted, “it’s really tough mentally and physically” to cope with not only the in and out laps, but also without making any errors over an 85-lap race, his longest in a single-seater, with so many new or unfamiliar factors to contend with over such a long distance.
He jumped over these hurdles with ease, passing Indy Lights champion Linus Lundqvist and a pair of old F2 rivals in Christian Lundgaard and Marcus Armstrong on his way to victory, which impressed the team and has undoubtedly catapulted Pourchaire into the running for a 2025 McLaren seat.
