Christian Lundgaard and Arrow McLaren had been lastly capable of get some high quality time collectively on the IndyCar Series testing final week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For Lundgaard, the monitor day was extra targeted on the team-building expertise — getting acclimated to the crew and group, fairly than making an attempt to make report lap instances.
“It was a little bit little bit of a combination from a run plan standpoint of view,” Lundgaard instructed Motorsport.com. “It was good to know how they’re working as a group and for us to work collectively on the No. 7 automobile and get used to one another. Clearly, get some extra info for the month of Could. So, it was an excellent begin, but it surely’s troublesome, man. It is troublesome once you solely know one factor and abruptly you are right here working in a very completely different means as you are used to. However once more, change is nice.”
The 23-year-old Dane, with one profession IndyCar win (Toronto, 2022) up to now, was capable of pound laps within the recognizable papaya colours final Friday at IMS, which marked his first outing with the group since being introduced as a part of the 2025 roster in early July. However after spending the final three full-time seasons with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, there was fairly a bit to get acclimated to.
Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Picture by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Photos
“The automobile has extra pure tempo than what I used to be beforehand used to,” he stated.
“I feel the stability has some familiarity to, once more, what I’m used to. I didn’t actually anticipate the most important distinction to be in dealing with. So, I feel numerous it was sort of what I anticipated, which is an effective factor. But it surely was good to get to work with all people. That was extra of the duty for us was to get to really feel the automobile, get to work with all people, for all of us to learn to work collectively and the instruments that I’ve obtainable and the individuals which can be obtainable.”
Maybe no change was more durable to get adjusted to on his first day, although, than what he wraps his fingers round within the cockpit, as he transitions from a Honda machine at RLL to Arrow McLaren’s Chevrolet.
“To me, attending to work with a brand new steering wheel was most likely truly the most important distinction for me,” he stated. “That took a little bit time getting used to, but it surely was all effective after that.”
Though the group has but to substantiate its engineering lineup for subsequent yr, it’s necessary to notice that Chris Lawrence was the one up on the timing stand working with Lundgaard. Lawrence has lengthy been embedded with Arrow McLaren, working extensively with Felix Rosenqvist, after which working with Alexander Rossi for the 2024 season.
Whereas Arrow McLaren is retaining Lundgaard busy within the low season, touring round consistently, the check supplied an excellent bottom line on issues to work on for the subsequent few months earlier than racing returns in March 2025.
“I might need to spend so much of time with Chevy simply to ensure that I am updated on procedures,” Lundgaard stated.
“All these completely different sorts of issues. The fundamental easy issues that I feel you would not actually take into consideration, that will sometimes be muscle reminiscence however is completely different as a result of it’s a completely different group and a unique engine producer. So, the small staple items that make sense that you simply want to pay attention to, to ensure that we nail these.”
As certainly one of 11 drivers and group combos doing hybrid testing on the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Lundgaard accomplished 88 laps, with a better of 219.566 mph. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou set the quickest mark at 224.342 mph.
