{"id":512832,"date":"2026-07-06T19:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T19:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512832\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T19:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T19:07:23","slug":"indycar-news-mclaren-indycar-chiefs-cryptic-response-to-silly-season-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512832\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar news: McLaren IndyCar chief\u2019s cryptic response to silly season saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"McLaren
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTony Kanaan (left) celebrates Christian Lundgaard’s race win at Road America. Image: Joe Skibinski<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With the silly season in full swing, McLaren is facing massive changes.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the latest round at Mid-Ohio, Meyer Shank Racing announced Felix Rosenqvist would not return to the team<\/a> in 2027. A week later, Chip Ganassi Racing announced Scott Dixon would not renew his contract<\/a> for 2027.<\/p>\n

The pair, who are both managed by ex-Formula 1 driver Stefan Johansson, are expected to land at McLaren.<\/a> That will leave McLaren incumbents Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel out of a drive.<\/p>\n

Lundgaard made comments before the Mid-Ohio race that suggested he was not allowed to negotiate with other teams. However, reports out of the United States indicate Kanaan has given him permission to do so and will not exercise its option on the Danish driver\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the team celebrated its first one-two finish in the IndyCar Series. Pato O\u2019Ward led pole position winner Lundgaard to the chequered flag<\/a> while Siegel matched his season-best 10th.<\/p>\n

Speaking post-race, Kanaan responded to the rumour mill, suggesting that no deals had been done for next year. He even went so far as to suggest Lundgaard was still under consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think first, there\u2019s a lot of talk about what we\u2019re doing in the team and a lot of speculation,\u201d said Kanaan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we haven\u2019t reached an agreement yet. I think you guys will see in the near future what the team is doing. We haven\u2019t been able to agree on a couple things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think as a team principal, I\u2019m responsible for running this team as best as I can, and I think Christian has shown his potential, but also, there are other options out there, and I\u2019ve got to consider all of them. The decision hasn\u2019t been made yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough people keep putting people in my cars, it\u2019s not done until it\u2019s done. He\u2019s still very much in play, and he\u2019s an extremely capable race car driver. We\u2019ll see what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

Christian Lundgaard drives for McLaren in the IndyCar Series. Image: Chris Jones<\/p>\n

Asked about the noise, Kanaan said he was proud of the team\u2019s ability to win despite the distractions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, they make noise, we\u2019ll make a bigger noise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we work. I think this is a statement of what it is. There is a lot of things going on, a lot of distraction, and we\u2019re able to keep this team on track with what we came here to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here to win the race. We came here to finish one-two-three, and we finished one-two. We\u2019re trying to win this championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept the team tight. I kept the team at truth. They\u2019re going to hear from me whatever the decision is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they haven\u2019t heard from me, that means there is no decision made yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut rest assured that the decision is going to come with a lot of certainty and not taking for granted that 130 people are putting their life and their faith towards me, towards this guy that has a lot of responsibility, and I feel responsible for all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"McLaren<\/p>\n

McLaren IndyCar team principal Tony Kanaan (left) with Nolan Siegel. Image: Chris Owens<\/p>\n

Kanaan was given the reins of McLaren in 2025, replacing Gavin Ward.<\/p>\n

The 2004 IndyCar Series winner and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner said he was not afraid of change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I have to take a gamble, take a gamble, and if I need to take a hit, I\u2019ll take a hit,\u201d said Kanaan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to win races. That\u2019s what Zak (Brown) put me here for. That\u2019s why I wake up every morning, and I\u2019m working on that team for 13, 14 hours a day since I retired.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, nothing is changing. Bring it on. Bring the distractions. We\u2019ll keep changing that a little bit. Today we\u2019re going to talk about one-two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lundgaard has been McLaren\u2019s best driver this year, winning at the road course-configured Indianapolis Motor Speedway and at Road America.<\/p>\n

He sits third in the standings and only nine points away from second-placed Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global.<\/p>\n

Asked post-race about his predicament, Lundgaard said \u201cIt isn\u2019t really where my head\u2019s at now\u201d with seven races remaining in the season.<\/p>\n

Siegel is also set to depart but was coy when asked about his future with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t know anything,\u201d said Siegel.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for me, it\u2019s very simple. I\u2019m going to do the best job that I can in the car. If I do a good job in the car, that\u2019ll certainly help my future in IndyCar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I want to be. It\u2019s where I want to stay. And honestly, the past few weeks, I feel like I\u2019ve done what I\u2019ve needed to do to show that I will be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

IndyCar continues on July 20 at Nashville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Kanaan (left) celebrates Christian Lundgaard’s race win at Road America. Image: Joe Skibinski With the silly season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-512832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}