The start of David Malukas’ 2024 IndyCar season was delayed, and the path of his IndyCar career changed, due to a left wrist injury suffered while riding a mountain bike in February.
The 22-year-old originally planned to drive for Arrow McLaren this season, but he was not able to start the year in St. Petersburg behind the wheel due to the injury.
As the healing process was delayed and extended through April, the team released him so they could find a more stable driver for the #6 entry.
Malukas returned to action starting at Laguna Seca in late June, driving for Meyer Shank Racing to finish out the rest of the season.
Even though he has been contested seven races since returning, Malukas still has his wrist wrapped at nearly all times and he has confirmed that it is not yet fully healed.
The amount of data available to him allowed him to get back up to speed quickly, however, especially concerning the details of the new hybrid system that was introduced just after he returned.
“100%,” Malukas confirmed when asked by MotorsportWeek.com if he was still making up for lost time.
“The hand is still only around 85% health, you know. It is not going to be 100% until next year, so there are still some things we’re battling with.
“The whole team has been incredible. You have Felix Rosenqvist in our cars, and then you have all the Andretti cars with that data. There’s a lot of collection from my side.
“The only reason why we’re able to get this performance so fast was because we have all this data on my hands. To miss half a season and come back into it, it’s really because of them. They have all this data I can really just push off of.”
The Andretti and Meyer Shank Racing teams have a technical partnership, through this season anyway, which has allowed Malukas to study data from a number of sources.
Malukas’ best result since returning to action has been on the streets of Toronto where he finished sixth.
Next year, Malukas will be driving for AJ Foyt Racing, a deal which many believe is a way for him to move into Team Penske later on, utilizing the partnership between those two teams.
