"Can't afford to do it": IndyCar star identifies Scott McLaughlin's key weakness in title fight against Alex Palou

Scott McLaughlin is one of the favorites to contend for the 2025 IndyCar championship. However, former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe has identified a pain point of the Team Penske driver that could hold him back in challenging defending champ Alex Palou.

Similar to his Supercars career, McLaughlin has had a consistently upward graph in IndyCar. He has improved his position in the standings each season since his full-time debut in 2021. The New Zealand driver has won on all kinds of tracks - ovals, road circuits, and street circuits.

Talking on the Apex Hunters United podcast, Hinchcliffe acknowledged that these statistics make a "great argument" for Scott McLaughlin taking the 2025 championship home. However, he believed that the No. 3 driver has to improve on one metric, consistency.

"He just needs a consistent season. You know there's a statistic that we like to lean on a lot in the booth, which is 'the best worst finish'. If you look at the champions over the last 5 years in IndyCar, the guy that holds the cup usually has 'the best worst finish'. So what's important in IndyCar is on the day you don't have a fight for the podium, take that sixth, take that eighth. Don't crash trying to make an eighth (into) a fourth.

"DNFs are so costly in this series. That's always kind of been that's held Scott back a little bit. His doing or not, he's got one or two races that were in the twenties or a DNF, for whatever reason. So he and the team need to make sure they don't have that kind of weekend. Can't afford to do it."

In 2024, Scott McLaughlin had five sub-15 finishes including four sub-20 results. Contrastingly, champ Alex Palou had only three sub-15 results. This severely dampened McLaughin's title hopes despite him winning more races (3) than Palou (2).

Scott McLaughlin wants "big bad results" out of the way in 2025

NTT IndyCar Series PPG 375 - Practice - Source: Getty

Scott McLaughlin's 2024 season kicked off on a significant note. He finished P3 in the race, only for IndyCar to disqualify him and teammate Josef Newgarden, six weeks later. The Team Penske drivers were found guilty of illegally using the push-to-pass system and fined $25,000 each. For someone aiming for the title, even one such non-point result can be disastrous.

During IndyCar's content days in mid-January, the Kiwi driver spoke about how such results, be it via a shock disqualification or a DNF, don't bode well for a title contender.

"I think you've just got to do it your own way. As much as you can plan and think about what you can do and what you can't, we all know the right path is just consistent results, with a few wins along the way. I think you need a couple wins. But consistency is key, and we all know that. But you've got to eliminate those big bad results, and we had a few of them last year, which really hurt," he said via IndyCar.

Scott McLaughlin's path to the 2025 IndyCar title won't be the easiest, with Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou gunning for a third consecutive title among other strong contenders like Colton Herta, Pato O'Ward, and Will Power.