The 2025 IndyCar season will be one to watch and today the focus is all on Arrow McLaren’s new driver Christian Lundgaard. There are only four spots left on the grid for the 2025 season. As the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place it’s become pretty clear that a lot of changes are being made. After spending three years with Rahal Letterman Lanigan (RLL) Racing, Lundgaard took a leap in his career. The Danish driver is set to pilot the No. 7 for Arrow McLaren as the replacement for Alexander Rossi who’s headed to Ed Carpenter Racing.
Like Most Drivers, Lundgaard’s Entry to IndyCar has Been a Long Time Coming
Early Career
Lundgaard’s single-seater career began back in 2017 he won the F4 Spanish and SMP F4 Championship in his debut year. The following year he moved to the Formula Renault EuroCup where he placed second in the championship right behind Max Fewtrell. Starting in 2019, he was a driver with ART Grand Prix for the FIA F3 Championship where he finished P6 in the standings.
The following year, Lundgaard made the move up to F2 where he continued racing with ART. He finished his first F2 season with two wins and was 7th overall in the standings. Lundgaard dealt with a more difficult race season in 2021. These poor results were part of his motivation to make the move to become an IndyCar driver. During the 2021 F2 Championship, he was teammates with future Prema driver Theo Pouchaire. That year, Lundgaard was P12 in the standings with only 15 points while Pouchaire was P5 with 150 points overall.
IndyCar Debut and Rookie Season
In July 2021, Lundgaard took part in testing with RLL at Barber Motorsports Park. A month later in August, he made his IndyCar debut at the 2021 Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He had a successful qualifying session and qualified in P4 and ended the race in P12.
For his first season in IndyCar, Lundgaard was teammates with Jack Harvey and Graham Rahal. He made his first appearance as a full-time IndyCar driver at the 2022 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. He qualified 15 and finished 11, narrowly missing out on the top 10 during the final laps of the race. Lundgaard struggled for the next few races. Some of the incidents included making contact with Colton Herta, running out of fuel and going off to the grass.
In addition, Lundgaard made history and was the first Danish driver to race in the Indy 500. Throughout the season he continued to have successful qualifying sessions and well as finishing in the top ten. During his rookie season, he made his way onto the podium for the first time when he finished second at the 2022 Gallagher Grand Prix. To end his season, Lundgaard had 323 points and finished 14th overall in the standings. This secured him the title of Rookie Of The Year beating David Malukas by just 18 points.
2023 Season
In August 2022, Lundgaard signed a contract extension with RLL Racing. Many IndyCar fans consider the 2023 season to be his breakout year in the sport. For his second season, he was once again teammates with Harvey and Rahal with the addition of Katherine Legge who raced part-time for RLL. He had significantly better finishes in a majority of his races in comparison to his rookie year.
The biggest highlight of the season and his IndyCar career to date came during the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto. Lundgaard started from pole that day and led 54 laps out of the race’s 85. That day, Lundgaard won his very first IndyCar race with an 11.7-second margin. This also marked the first time RLL Racing had won a race since the 2020 Indy 500.
2024 Onwards
The 2024 season was a bit of a quieter one for the team over at RLL. Lundgaard continued to show his success on road courses but the team still struggled on ovals. For this season there was a small switch-up with the introduction of Pietro Fittipaldi as a teammate. Lundgaard’s best result of the season came early on at IMS where he finished third. Aside from that, he had five other drives who finished within the top 10. At the end of 2024, he was 11th in the driver standings while his teammates finished 18th and 19th.
On July 1, 2024, Arrow McLaren confirmed their driver lineup next season will consist of Lundgaard driving alongside Pato O’Ward and Nolan Siegel. This will be Lundgaard’s first time switching teams in his IndyCar career. It also marks the first time he’ll be representing Chevrolet as a manufacturer instead of Honda. McLaren hasn’t been shy about making driver changes mid-season. Lundgaard will have to prove himself but with the progress he’s made so far, a championship fight could be a future possibility.
