“Any of us could" - Josef Newgarden claims all IndyCar drivers would “rock it” in F1

IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden claimed that he had no doubts that any of the drivers in the series could race in the pinnacle of motorsport, F1. The American driver is fresh off winning the Indy500 race held on the weekend.

The historic race, consisting of 200 laps of a 2.5-mile oval track at the Brickyard in Indianapolis, Indiana is part of the 'Triple Crown' in motorsport, which includes the Le Mans 24-hour race and the F1 Monaco Grand Prix.

Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, the Team Penske driver was asked if he could drive in F1 right now and he replied without hesitation:

"Absolutely.. any of us could & we would rock it."

In recent years, several IndyCar drivers have had the opportunity to test F1 machinery. Pato O'Ward tested for the McLaren F1 team in the Young Driver's Test in Abu Dhabi in 2022, while Colton Herta came close to nabbing the former AlphaTauri seat later in the same year but was denied due to his Super License points.

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Josef Newgarden reflects on his Indy500 triumph on Sunday

Josef Newgarden won the Indy500 for the second time in succession on Sunday after he passed Pato O'Ward in the final 200th lap of the iconic race.

The American positioned himself well for the attack on the Mexican driver as he jumped in early to overtake him and defended his own lead for the remainder of the lap to become the race's first back-to-back winner in 22 years.

Speaking to Query & Company, Josef Newgarden addressed his achievement:

“To get to a point where you let go of the thought of winning the race. You have to just come to peace with it saying we may never win this thing, and that’s okay. And to win it last year we soaked in every bit of it.

To follow it up I will say, when you win it, you don’t know what it really means until you win it. You can imagine, you can dream about it, you can experience it from a distance for many years, but you just don’t know what it means until you go through it."

He also explained how planned his last-lap move on O'Ward was, adding that he wanted to get back at the Mexican for his earlier move on him:

“What Pato did to me was what I was actually planning to do to him. I wanted to pass him into turn one on the white flag lap because I thought he had a harder time staying with me off of two and I could probably hold him to the line."

Josef Newgarden etched his name in motorsports history as he also became one of only 20 drivers to win the Indy500 multiple times.