The way IndyCar is being covered here, you’d think Nolan Siegel was the sport’s new protagonist.
In my previous opinion post, I discussed Siegel’s decision not to replace AgustÃn Canapino full-time at Juncos Hollinger due to prior obligations for the year.
https://x.com/IndyCaronNBC/status/1802342584112542068
Then, earlier this week, I discussed Siegel’s class triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, noting that it would likely heighten a forthcoming IndyCar bidding war for him.
Little did I realize that by the time I finished writing those words, the decisive shot had already been fired.
Just five days before the Monterey Grand Prix, Siegel transitioned from an Indy NXT driver who made occasional top-level appearances to Arrow McLaren’s full-time #6 driver, leaving the Dale Coyne #18 vacant for Toronto and replacing Théo Pourchaire immediately.
In retrospect, perhaps we should have seen this coming. After all, Siegel’s Le Mans seat was with United Autosport, a squad created and still co-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
Eurosport even showed Brown hanging out in the garage during their broadcast of the race. Perhaps Siegel’s tenacious defense of the lead during his final driving stint was the final evidence Brown needed before offering the contract.
Besides, Siegel was never going to be in NXT past this season anyhow.
He’s too poised on the track, with too much Silicon Valley money backing him, for IndyCar teams to ignore, and if this McLaren deal was for 2025 and beyond, it would have been a relatively simple pill to swallow.
However, the fact that it begins at Laguna Seca raises a whole new set of issues.
As contentious as the decision to replace David Malukas with Théo Pourchaire a few months back was, I saw a logical explanation.
There was an express injury clause in the contract that allowed McLaren to release Malukas after a certain number of races, and with his rehabilitation timeframe still unknown, cutting him to sign Formula 2’s recent champion seemed a sensible, albeit cutthroat, decision.
But examine what Pourchaire has accomplished during his time with McLaren. He came to Long Beach having never raced an Indy car before, but finished 11th, comfortably ahead of Pato O’Ward and just behind Alexander Rossi.
Pourchaire outqualified both of his teammates in Detroit and finished in the top ten for the first time.
He beat Rossi by five places at Road America, finishing in the top half for the third time in five starts. He abandoned his original plan for the year in Japan to race with McLaren for what was expected to be a rest-of-season commitment.
When faced with hostility and death threats following Detroit, McLaren destroyed their cooperation with Juncos Hollinger in his defense.
However, in the period of around two weeks, and despite solid results given his circumstances, Pourchaire went from enjoying one of the loudest displays of support a team can possibly give a driver to being stabbed in the back and tossed out on the street for someone with more financial backing.
That type of move has a chilling impact.
By claiming, as the team did in their press release announcing Siegel’s signing, that Pourchaire was always intended to be a temporary hire rather than a full-time member, they are effectively declaring that the stated length of an Arrow McLaren contract is meaningless if a richer or more talented driver catches Zak Brown’s attention.
