Former Arrow McLaren driver Theo Pourchaire admits to having been “disgusted” by the way the IndyCar team handled his recent dismissal from the outfit after just five races.
Pourchaire's journey with McLaren began at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, initially intended as a one-time appearance. However, his performance impressed the team enough to secure a contract for the remainder of the 2024 IndyCar season.
Unfortunately, this promising turn of events took a sudden sharp turn in mid-June for the FIA Formula 2 champion and Sauber F1 junior.
Just days before IndyCar’s round at Laguna Seca, Pourchaire was informed that his services were no longer required.
American racer Nolan Siegel, a 19-year-old rising star, was signed as his replacement, marking the sixth driver rotation for Arrow McLaren’s #6 entry within a year.
The decision is a big blow to Pourchaire’s burgeoning career. Despite winning last year’s Formula 2 title, the 20-year-old was denied a promotion to F1.
Initially earmarked for a year in Super Formula, Arrow McLaren’s unexpected call was a welcome opportunity to move west to keep his momentum going. He now once again faces time on the sidelines.
“To be 100 per cent transparent, McLaren had signed me to a multi-year contract to drive with them in IndyCar,” Pourchaire explained in an interview with Auto-Hebdo and quoted by PlanetF1.
“And then, on the Tuesday morning before Laguna Seca, I learned from my manager that they had decided not to have me drive at Laguna Seca, as well as for the rest of the season.
“At first, I was very surprised, I didn’t understand, I thought it was fake. We had only signed a few weeks before. I was disgusted.”
©IndyCar
Adding insult to injury, Pourchaire revealed that the full extent of his conversation with the team following the unexpected news was a one-minute phone communication.
“The team ended up calling me for a minute, around 11am that same day, the day before my planned departure for Laguna Seca, to tell me that I was excluded from the program,” he added.
“They didn’t give me the specific reasons.”
McLaren’s infatuation with Siegel, its new recruit, seems odd given the latter’s limited track record, especially compared to Pourchaire’s achievements.
However, in the aftermath of last month’s news, Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward offered a rather murky answer to a question about whether Siegel had brought a sponsorship package along with his skills.
Ward clearly side-stepped the topic and simply said that Siegel had “earned his way”.
Meanwhile, Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan described the back-drop to the team’s decision to swap Pourchaire for Siegel.
“It started back last year with that driver [Palou] that decided not to come over and breach his contract,” Kanaan said, quoted by Motorsport.com.
“Then we decided on continuity, and it’s been quite a few six months for me. I did not sign up to have to choose four drivers. And then every option we had, because we had to make a decision quick, a lot of them had schedules already.
“I just told the guys out there, ‘You change race cars all the time. You come in, you make a change.’ Not that we want to do that with drivers, but we’re here. I’m in this to win races. That’s all I care [about]. And then I think eventually we look for continuity.”
“He [Pourchaire] didn’t do anything wrong, it was just a situation,” Kanaan added.
“It was a call that we had to make. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t because of his performance. He’s done whatever he could do. He wasn’t happy, but he understood.”
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