"Took a toll on me mentally" - Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson opens up on F1 misfortunes

A hoard of F1 drivers have tried their hand at IndyCar and Marcus Ericsson is one of them. The Andretti driver joined the grid in 2019 after being sacked by Alfa Romeo (Sauber) for the 2019 season and revealed how the F1 world took a toll on him mentally.

During his five-year stint in F1, Ericsson was always strangled with a backmarker. In his rookie season, he raced for Caterham, a team that ended its racing operations in the same year.

However, the Swedish driver found a home elsewhere on the grid and joined Sauber. Ericsson finished a mere 11 races in the points during his time with the team, while his then-teammate Charles Leclerc finished 10 races in the points during the same year.

This led the Swiss team to bid adieu to Ericsson, who decided to venture into the open-wheel racing scene in America. He won the 2022 Indy 500 and etched his name in the history books. Reflecting on his subpar results during his time in F1, he revealed how underperforming machinery held him back and took a toll on him (via Conor Daly's podcast):

"It was tough, like the first few years you're so like excited to be in F1 so you sort of don't really care so much. It was just super cool but then like after a few years, it's like this is really tough, like I want to win again. When I have that feeling to fight for wins at least feel like I have the chance to do it, you know it's one thing to maybe not do but at least know in yourself, that like I can win if I do everything right, if the team, like that was really hard to not even have that feeling." (37:46 onwards)

Marcus Ericsson further added:

"That was really tough for me in my years in F1 to just like year after year just knowing, like you said, 'Connor you have like a bracket there it's like okay we are between 10 and 14, or we are between like 14 and 18.' You always had like a bracket of positions where you knew you would be. So, that was tough and took a toll on me mentally for sure."

The 34-year-old left Chip Ganassi Racing in favor of Andretti last year.

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Marcus Ericsson reflects on his 2024 campaign with Andretti

Marcus Ericsson at the INDYCAR Bommarito Automotive Group 500 - Source: Getty

Chip Ganassi Racing has been hosting the champion for the past two years. On the other hand, Marcus Ericsson had a torrid 2024 campaign. He was troubled with mechanical issues and bad luck throughout the year, which led to him finishing 15th in the standings.

The Swiss driver was aware of the factors that troubled him last year. However, Ericsson was optimistic for the upcoming season due to Colton Herta's impressive second-place finish in the standings, revealing that the car has the potential to win the championship (via The Race):

"I think that ovals were the big outlier, where we didn't get any results out of it. That's something that we've been focusing on and making sure, we need to do that better. The good thing with it, though, is that, for example, Colton [Herta] was super strong on the ovals, so it's not like we need to, as a team, find a big chunk of time."

The 2025 season will start on March 2, at St. Petersburg, a race that the 34-year-old won in 2023.