Christian Lundgaard was a big player in the 2025 IndyCar driver market before he decided upon his next move in July.
The 23-year-old will combine with Pato O’Ward and Nolan Siegel to form the youngest driver line-up on the entire grid.
At first glance, that’s not normally a promising statistic, but O’Ward and Lundgaard both have some significant experience under their belts.
Siegel may need some help getting up to speed, but he won’t be expected to compete for the championship at the age of 20.
Steering wheel is Christian Lundgaard’s ‘biggest’ Rahal Letterman Lanigan to McLaren difference
Changing from team to team in IndyCar poses all sorts of challenges from meeting new personnel, to sometimes familiarising yourself with a new engine and the challenge of new teammates.
In short, pretty much everything is new and that can take some time to get used to – making the autumn Indianapolis test vital for the newbies.
Discussing the differences between his old Rahal Letterman Lanigan team and McLaren, Lundgaard shared which part of the move has been the biggest change for him with Motorsport.com.
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“To me, getting to work with a new steering wheel was probably actually the biggest difference for me,” he said.
“That took a little time getting used to, but it was all fine after that.”
Where McLaren need to improve in 2025
Lundgaard does have a few seasons of IndyCar experience up his belt now and was a race-winner back in the 2023 season.
That should help when it comes round to distinguishing McLaren’s consistency problems from seasons gone by.
They have struggled to fire up or keep the Firestone tyres in a good window which has severely hindered their race pace.
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Some weeks they are able to compete for victory, and in others, they can’t even scrape a top 10 finish, so it’s something that all sides will be aware needs to be worked on.
There isn’t too much pressure on Lundgaard early on though, with team leader O’Ward able to carry the responsibilities and expectations on McLaren well by now.