“I was driving in a lot of pain”: RLL’s rookie Louis Foster comes clean on the ‘issues’ with his IndyCar ride

IndyCar driver Louis Foster won the 2024 Indy NXT championship and was promoted to the IndyCar series. The Briton was signed by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for the ongoing season. He recently came out and detailed the issue with his car at the Thermal Club race.

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was Foster’s debut race in the IndyCar series. However, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver crashed out on the first lap of the race as he was collected following Will Power and Nolan Siegel's crash outside of Turn 3.

Since Foster didn't get any laps in the race condition, the Thermal Club race was the Briton's first outing as he completed a full race distance. However, the RLL driver faced issues with his seat belt, which, in turn, hindered his performance. Foster started the race in P10 and finished 24th.

Foster got as high as P8 in the first stint, but then the seat belt issue held him back and caused pain in his shoulder. Detailing the same, Foster said (via Motorsport.com),

“We had some issues with the seat with my shoulder so I was driving in a lot of pain, just struggling to honestly finish the race at that point. We need to look over the seat and the belt and understand what exactly the cause of that pain was. The positives are we’ve got the pace, we just need to now try and get myself more used to IndyCar racing.”

Foster kept falling down the order as the laps ticked and the issues with the seat belt got worse. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver finished the race toward the back end of the grid.

Will Power took the blame for the crash with Nolan Siegel and Louis Foster at St. Pete

Will Power and Nolan Siegel went side by side into the tricky first few corners of the St. Pete circuit on Lap 1. After the run along the runway at the Albert Whitted Airport, Turns 1,2, and 3 get increasingly tight and are a prime spot for incidents. Exiting Turn 3, Power and Seigel came together as they slammed into the outside wall.

Louis Foster, who was behind the duo, was caught in the aftermath of the crash. However, Power took responsibility for the incident as he said,

“Just really close racing there in the middle of the pack and we got checked up super quick. Got into the back of the 6 car which was my fault and obviously not intentional. Normally that corner opens up a bit there, so I need to go back and look at that. Not much I could do after that contact with the 45 car behind me. Just hate to start the season this way,” Power was quoted as saying by V8Sleuth.com.au.

Louis Foster is partnered with Graham Rahal and Devlin DeFrancesco at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for the 2025 IndyCar season.