"Uncomfortable" performance history daunts Scott McLaughlin for IndyCar's 50th Long Beach GP

Team Penske racing driver Scott McLaughlin recently took the time to dwell on Round 3 of the 2025 IndyCar season. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach race weekend will kick off from April 11 onwards.

Mclaughlin has admitted feeling uncomfortable around the 1.968-mile race track. The 31-year-old talked about it on fellow Indycar driver Conor Daly's YT channel, saying:

"I, to be honest, Chase, I just haven't really felt comfortable with the race car there. Sometimes, you just have tracks where you just don't feel you can push the limits, especially a place like Long Beach, where you need to commit a lot over bumps like breaking, and you know, getting close to walls and stuff," McLaughlin said. (from 1:01:00 onwards).

During last year's Acura Grand Prix race weekend, Scott McLaughlin had an outing to forget. Firstly, he ended his qualifying out of the top 10 in P11, and secondly, during the main race, he slipped further back to end his outing in a disappointing P26.

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Scott McLaughlin deemed Liam Lawson's Red Bull exit 'irrational'

While Scott McLaughlin has given his views on the upcoming Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, he recently also took the time to dwell on Red Bull's shocking axing of Liam Lawson.

The Kiwi was sacked after the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix to make way for Yuki Tsunoda. Reacting to this, McLaughlin said via his X account:

"But give the kid a chance if you are going to throw him in the deep end against a 4x world champ to begin with, why even give him the shot in the first place if you aren’t going to ride the wave? Nothing against Yuki and I think he’s a shoe, but the Red Bull game is ruthless/irrational. I look forward to the next instalment of this broken system."

Liam Lawson has been demoted to Red Bull's junior team, Racing Bulls. Moreover, just like the Team Penske driver, several other motorsports personalities have given their strong views on the Austrian outfit's harsh treatment of the 23-year-old driver.

The debate around this has somewhat settled, and from the point of view of Scott Mclaughlin, he has got the huge task of putting on a solid outing at next month's Acura Grand Prix.

After the first two rounds of the 2025 IndyCar season, he currently finds himself in 10th place in the drivers' championship. The 31-year-old is behind Ed Carpenter Racing's Alexander Rossi, who has so far managed 43 points in comparison to McLaughlin's 41. All eyes will be on the Team Penske driver for a plethora of reasons at Long Beach.