Alexander Rossi has officially joined Arrow McLaren SP, making his way into the race shop and getting familiar with his new team over the past week.
The new surroundings come after the 31-year-old had driven for Andretti Autosport since joining IndyCar in 2016, and is the first time he’s been presented with new work environment in quite some time.
Rossi had become increasingly disappointed with his results at Andretti, and his lone win in 2022 broke a three-year-long winless streak that stretched back to Road America in 2019.
In a short question and answer session released by his new team, Rossi described what was most intriguing about the opportunity to join AMSP.
“If you look at the team’s trajectory in the past couple of years, it has been the most impressive on the entire grid,” said Rossi. “Starting to get to know the team and Zak Brown, understanding what Zak’s vision is for the future, I think that coupled with the on-track results speak for themselves.
“When the opportunity came and we found out they were adding a third car, it was a pretty easy decision to proceed down that path. I feel very excited with the runway that we have as an organization and for what we can accomplish in the future.”
Rossi has attempted to be diplomatic about his former team’s struggles at short ovals in particular, but did relate multiple times that he is looking forward to being competitive on all types of circuits next season.
For comparison, Romain Grosjean was the only Andretti driver to finish in the top 10 at any of the season’s three short oval races, whereas AMSP’s two drivers notched four top 10s and a win at the same three races.
Rossi will race alongside the team’s returning duo Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist in 2023, as well as Tony Kanaan, who will be joining the team for his 22nd Indy 500 attempt in May.
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