5 IndyCar drivers who lost big in the 2025 Thermal Club Grand Prix featuring Marcus Ericsson

The 2025 IndyCar Thermal Club Grand Prix was an extremely fascinating affair. The likes of Alex Palou, Arrow McLaren drivers, Pato O'Ward, and Christian Lundgaard proved their mettle with podium finishes, but the story was not so bright for many of the other drivers.

The 3.067-mile Thermal Club layout proved quite tricky for the participants and quite a few of them made costly mistakes. IndyCar driver (Andretti Autosport), Marcus Ericsson alongside a few other top drivers, had an outing to forget in the fiercely contested 65-lap event.

Here is the list of the top five drivers who came out as the biggest losers from the Thermal Club event:

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#5 Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske IndyCar driver)

In number five is the Team Penske racing driver, Scott McLaughlin. The 31-year-old came into the Thermal event on the back of a strong P4 finish in St. Petersburg.

However, he was just not able to get to grips with the track layout at Thermal. Firstly, he had a horrendous qualifying that had him start the 65-lap event from P25. Following this, he did not have a great time out on the track in the race, and when one would've thought that things couldn't get any worse, he had to retire on lap 53. He managed only five points from the Thermal event.

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#4 Rinus Veekay (Dale Coyne Racing)

The next name on the list is that of the Dale Coyne Racing driver, Rinus Veekay. From the standpoint of Coyne not being one of the heavy-hitter outfits in the sport, he had a decent outing.

But, despite this, he lost four places in IndyCar's Thermal race. The 24-year-old started his 65-lap outing from P13, but he was not able to make a strong impression in the race. If anything, he went backward and ended his outing in P17. Veekay managed 13 points at the event.

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#3 David Malukas (AJ Foyt Racing)

With two drivers out of the way, it is the turn of AJ Foyt Racing's #4 challenger driver, David Malukas. The 23-year-old is one of the less experienced drivers on the current IndyCar grid, he has so far managed only 44 appearances.

At Thermal, Malukas surprised quite a few people with his strong P12 finish in Saturday's qualifying. Ahead of the event, he would've hoped to make further progress, but things didn't really go his way in the 65-lap race (lost six places to end his outing in P18).

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#2 Louis Foster (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing)

The penultimate name on this list is that of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar driver, Louis Foster. The 2024 Indy NXT champion had a great qualifying as he put his #45 challenger in P10 in qualifying.

However, when it came to the main Grand Prix, he only slipped backward. He had a few good tussles on the track (notably one with Christian Rasmussen, lap 23), but in most of them, he came out second best for various reasons. Ultimately, the 21-year-old ended his Thermal outing in P24, losing 14 places in the race.

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#1 Marcus Ericsson

Lastly, it is the turn of the 2022 Indy 500 winner, Marcus Ericsson (mentioned earlier). The 34-year-old put in a stonking lap in qualifying as he was able to put his #28 Andretti Autosport car in P5.

But just like many of the other drivers on this list, his race unraveled quite quickly. He lost quite a few places on lap 1 and following that, he just wasn't able to recover. Moreover, on lap 16, he went wide into Turn 9 and ended up in the gravel. Following his terrible 65-lap outing at Thermal, he came away with only nine points from his P21 finish (lost 16 places).