Ganassi signs Armstrong to drive road and street IndyCar races in 2023

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Chip Ganassi Racing have announced they have hired Marcus Armstrong to race for them in all road course and street circuit rounds of the 2023 IndyCar championship.

The 22-year-old driver, who spent the last three seasons in Formula 2, will join Ganassi for the 2023 IndyCar season, driving the team’s number 11 car at all races except for those run on oval circuits. He will therefore contest 12 of next year’s 17 races.

The former Ferrari academy driver claimed four race victories during his time in F2, three of which came this season. He was classified 13th in the driver’s standings in each of the three seasons he participated in the series.

Armstrong tested an IndyCar for Dale Coyne Racing at Sebring with Hitech F2 team mate Juri Vips in October and had spoken on his podcast, Screaming Meals, about his interest in racing in the series. Armstrong says he was excited to join fellow New Zealand racer and IndyCar champion Scott Dixon on the 2023 grid.

“I’m ecstatic to be a part of the IndyCar Series, but especially with Chip Ganassi Racing because it is such an iconic and successful team,” said Armstrong.

“I have an extraordinary opportunity in front of me to learn from people that have been performing at the absolute highest level in this sport. As a Kiwi, I’ve always watched Scott Dixon succeed in the championship with this team, so on a personal level this is quite special for me. I am a hard worker that looks to improve every single day. With the knowledge and personnel that this team has, I’m very excited to take on this new challenge.”

Ganassi will announce the driver who will race their number 11 car at oval rounds, including the Indy 500, in the future.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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10 comments on “Ganassi signs Armstrong to drive road and street IndyCar races in 2023”

  1. petebaldwin (@)
    2nd December 2022, 19:19

    Well according to the FIA, he’s just been demoted to Indycar. Strange that – I thought he looked pretty good in F2….

    1. He finished 13th in each of the past three Formula 2 seasons.

      That’s not very impressive. His personal sponsorship package may be, though.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        2nd December 2022, 20:44

        Fair enough – I only saw a few races and he did well usually when I saw him.

    2. IndyCar is the most attractive series F2 drivers want to be if they can’t get in F1.

  2. Remaining seats prediction
    Juncos No.78 Jüri Vips
    DCR RWR No.51 Takuma Sato/Linus Lundqvist
    CGR No.11 oval Ryan Hunter Reay

  3. Armstrong showing speed on occassion, but lacking tire management make me think he won’t be a good fit for Indycar right away – its gonna be a steep learning curve. Only driving road tracks that means he will essentially be a rookie again next season due to lack of oval experience if they wanna continue the relationship, which I find a bit odd for both parties. He is very lucky to be getting a seat at all, and even with one of the best teams, but it looks to be a stop-gap until they can poach someone else (oh hi David Malukas) unless he performs better than what I expect. And where does he go from there? Either way he puts himself in the mix, but going to a smaller team and competeting at all types of tracks would have given better developement in my opinion.

  4. I guess this rules out the rumors a months ago of Kimi Raikkonen going to Ganassi for the road races. It seemed like a long shot, but who’ve been cool to see.

  5. Indycar is basically F2 Rejects Championship.

    1. Do you watch it?

    2. Thanks for those words of wisdom troll.

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