Alexander Rossi’s incredulous look in victory lane after winning the 100th Indianapolis 500 in 2016 lives on as a defining image.
It was a special moment in history, as fans made that year’s Indy 500 a grand celebration of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. It was a chance to pay tribute to the heroes and the legends before the race, and a chance to witness the stars of the present during the race.
Rossi became IndyCar’s star for the future; the newest driver who would be become famous for winning the Indianapolis 500.
At that time, he was mostly known as the last American driver in Formula 1, and his time in F-1 with Manor Racing was brief. But the quirky, sometimes aloof driver from northern California fit in well at Andretti Autosport, and he began to display the potential that made him a championship contender.
Rossi won the 100th Indianapolis 500 with a fuel-mileage gamble orchestrated by race strategist and team co-owner Bryan Herta. Rossi won the race by being slow enough to finish.
From 2017-’19, Rossi was perhaps the most aggressive driver in the NTT IndyCar Series. He dared take the car on parts of the race track that other drivers feared to tread.
That made him a perennial championship contender, but twice he came up agonizingly short. In 2018, it was a near-miss to champion Scott Dixon and a year later he was third in a tight title fight behind Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud.
Rossi had seven victories entering the 2020 season and was the pick to win the championship.
However, COVID-19 shut down the world and IndyCar’s season was in peril. The season finally began three months later and Rossi entered a slump that would last more than two years.
By then, Andretti Autosport had decided to let Rossi leave the team in 2023, and planned to replace him with Kyle Kirkwood.
Rossi joined Arrow McLaren Racing in a deal announced five days after the last year’s Indianapolis 500. He took his Andretti Autosport team back to victory lane one final time when he won on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on July 20, 2022.
Rossi and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown are hoping the change of scenery rekindles the brilliance Rossi displayed earlier in his career.
Unfortunately, Rossi entered the month of May 14th in the IndyCar standings. He had an impressive fourth-place finish in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 5.
Adversity followed in the next two races when he was involved in the controversial pit lane crash with the driver who replaced him at Andretti – Kirkwood. After starting third, Rossi finished 22nd.
At Long Beach, he ran out of fuel two laps from the finish. It was another 22nd-place finish and a long walk back to the team’s paddock.
“I talked to him the Monday after the Long Beach race,” Arrow McLaren racing director Gavin Ward shared with SPEED SPORT. “I apologized that the team let him down there. That’s not where we want to be. I explained all of that to him and he was very good about it.”
Rossi rebounded with an eighth-place finish in the April 30 event at Barber Motorsports Park.
Ward believes Rossi can be a primary challenger in the 107th Indianapolis 500 on May 28.
“I’ve been super impressed by Alexander,” Ward noted. “I think he has been a great team player, has a great presence.
“He sees what we are trying to build here and understands it’s the process that we are going through to get where we want to be. I don’t want to make any excuses, but our heads are focused on giving him better race cars every week.
“It was great to see his pace and composure through Long Beach because he really showed he can get it done there.
“When we get our ducks in a row, it’s going to be all systems go.”
In many ways, Ward and Rossi both speak the same Formula 1 language, which helps as McLaren is trying to create technical synergy across its various racing platforms.