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Dennis Hauger has claimed that IndyCar is a 'cooler' series than F1 in terms of competitiveness. The Norwegian driver races for Andretti Global in Indy NXT, the topmost rung of the IndyCar junior ladder.
Before coming to America in 2025, Hauger raced in the junior F1 series and was a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. He won the FIA F3 championship in 2021 with PREMA Racing before continuing with the team in F2 in 2022. In 2023, his second year in F2, Dennis Hauger switched to MP Motorsport and served a decent two-year stint, winning three races.
With no F1 seats available on the 2025 grid, he could've raced in F2 for a fourth season but chose not to. Hauger took on a new challenge in the form of Indy NXT, the F2 equivalent in the IndyCar ladder.
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In a recent interview with Motorsport, he compared two of the world's premier open-wheel racing series, saying:
"When I look at F1 and IndyCar, I don't see IndyCar as less of a cool series. It's more cool, if anything. You got the fighting and the close competitiveness and the high level of the drivers. It's insane. And you got a bit more aspects of it with ovals, road courses, street courses. And the (Indy) 500, which is crazy."
He also elaborated on how the American racing series has grown in the last few years and continues to do so.
"For me, it's a bit of a balance. I don't see IndyCar as a second option. I think we're all fighting to perform at the highest level and at the moment, IndyCar is the series that's expanding in the last few years and is going to be a really high-level series - even more than it already is."
The series owned by Penske Entertainment signed FOX as its official broadcasting partner from 2025 onwards and is already reaping the benefits. The average viewership of 895,000 across the first three races beats the 2024 three-race average of 706,000 by 27%.
Dennis Hauger sets one-year deadline for IndyCar promotion
Dennis Hauger has emerged as a potential contender for the 2025 Indy NXT title. The Andretti Global driver won pole position at the season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, over one-tenth faster than second-placed Lochie Hughes. Starting in P1, Hauger led all 44 laps of the race to cruise to his first Indy NXT win on debut.
He has a self-imposed deadline of one year to win the Indy NXT championship and advance to the topmost open-wheel series of America.
"The plan is to do one year, no matter how it goes," Hauger told Motorsport. "That's the possibility I have at this moment. It's all in this year and the goal is obviously to get an (IndyCar) seat for next season. Still a long way ahead, but trying to win the championship is the main goal."
He has been on the money since the first preseason test in Sebring, where he topped the timesheets. Driving the No. 28 car, he was second in the second and final preseason test at Laguna Seca. At the most recent Indy NXT test at Nashville, which was Hauger's first time on an oval, he emerged fastest yet again, nearly one-hundredth of a second quicker than Myles Rowe of ABEL Motorsport.
Indy NXT's next stop is the Barber Motorsports Park for the Grand Prix of Alabama from May 2nd to 4th.
