Arrow McLaren instructed Pato O'Ward to learn from rookie Nolan Siegel - "He's quicker than you”

IndyCar driver Nolan Siegel and his race engineer Kate Gundlach released a public statement on McLaren's official website. With the 2025 IndyCar season on the horizon, the driver and his race engineer reflected on the 2024 season, and detailed their expectations for the upcoming one.

While doing so, Kate Gundlach highlighted Nolan Siegel’s strong suit and revealed how the team asked Pato O'Ward to learn from the IndyCar rookie, as the 20-year-old was faster in a few areas than the Mexican. Seigel’s race engineer said,

“Just watching him last year from the No. 5 car, there were a couple moments where we had to look and say ‘Hey, Pato, look at what Nolan’s doing on this corner because he’s quicker than you.’ There were moments where we quickly identified that Nolan had some strong suits.”

Pato O'Ward; Formula 1 Testing In Abu Dhabi - Source: Getty

Nolan Siegel started his rookie IndyCar season as a part-time driver for Dale Coyne Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing. Midway through the season, Arrow McLaren signed the American as a full-timer to replace Theo Pourchaire. However, the 20-year-old struggled in qualifying despite demonstrating great race pace.

Going into the 2025 season, Seigel is wary that he needs to work on his qualifying performance and detailed the same in the statement released by McLaren. The Arrow McLaren driver said,

“The biggest priority this year is Qualifying. I feel like we raced really well in 2024. Most races we ended up further ahead of where we started”

“If we can start further up the grid, we can stay there and still make progress. It was just hard digging ourselves out of holes from Qualifying,” he added

The 2025 IndyCar season will be Nolan Siegel’s first full one in the open-wheel racing series. The 20-year-old will partner Pato O'Ward (25) and Christian Lundgaard (23) in one of the youngest lineups on the grid.

Nolan Siegel on facing “outside negativity” in his rookie IndyCar season

AUTO: Nolan Siegel; AUG 16 NTT IndyCar Series Bommarito Automotive Group 500 - Source: Getty

Nolan Siegel failed to qualify in his debut IndyCar race at the Thermal Club. The 20-year-old also stepped in as a part-timer for Dale Coyne Racing at the Indy 500 but again failed to qualify. Nonetheless, the fans sympathized with the youngster.

However, as soon as he signed with McLaren and finished P12 in his first race, people started criticizing him. Speaking with The Race, he said,

“There's been a tremendous amount of outside negativity, like, disappointingly so. I didn't qualify for the [Indianapolis] 500 and everyone is like, 'Oh, I feel so sorry for him, the little rookie that had no experience, he did so well'." It's worth noting here that Nolan is smiling and doing a mock child's voice to ram home the point…”

"And then, signed for McLaren, and a week later, finished 12th in my first race at Laguna and everyone's going, 'Why is he here? He shouldn't be here'. So it's an interesting dynamic, for sure.”

Tony Kanaan also came out and spoke about Nolan Siegel's debut season with McLaren and revealed how he connected the IndyCar driver with a Sports psychologist.