Everything To Know About McLaren’s Controversial, Bold Moves For 2027

There are three obvious questions after Arrow McLaren announced its 2027 full-time driver lineup featuring Scott Dixon, Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist.  

–How do you get rid of Christian Lundgaard, who has captured two wins, claimed five podiums (in nearly half of the 11 races) and sits third in the INDYCAR standings?

–Why would you bring back a driver (Felix Rosenqvist) the team essentially fired three years ago after going winless in 48 races?

–Is this just a way for McLaren to stick it to Ganassi considering the frosty Zak Brown-Chip Ganassi relationship?

We’ll get to those in a minute. But let’s first be clear: McLaren team principal Tony Kanaan knows the decision could backfire.

“I have to build,” Kanaan told me in an interview to explain his decisions. “In the process, I have to gamble. [Releasing] Christian is a gamble. I will let him go, and if he lands in one of the two [top] seats that are available, people are going to look at me next year like, ‘Ha ha ha, this is going to be tough.’”

The McLaren driver lineup will have a refreshed look in 2027 thanks to changes by Tony Kanaan (center).

Lundgaard is the favorite to land Dixon’s former ride, the one he has had for 25 years at Chip Ganassi Racing and is leaving behind to join Arrow McLaren. The 45-year-old Dixon and 34-year-old Rosenqvist join the team (car numbers were not announced), replacing 24-year-old Lundgaard and 21-year-old Nolan Siegel for 2027. O’Ward, who won Sunday’s race at Mid-Ohio, is the lone holdover of the three-driver McLaren lineup.

Here’s everything to know about Kanaan’s thinking in making the changes for the team that is overseen by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown.

How do you get rid of Christian Lundgaard, the driver who sits third in the standings, has won two races and has five podiums this year?

Kanaan, the 2004 series champion, said the goals are to win the INDYCAR title and the Indianapolis 500. And that means he needs drivers with the experience of doing both. Dixon has won the INDYCAR title six times while driving for Ganassi, the organization that has combined with Team Penske to win 19 of the last 20 championships.

Brown desperately wants to win what he considers a triple crown — the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indy 500. 

Dixon won the 2008 Indianapolis 500. Rosenqvist won the 2026 Indianapolis 500. And team sporting director Ryan Hunter-Reay, who will again race the fourth McLaren car in the 2027 Indianapolis 500, won it in 2014. Driving for Andretti, Hunter-Reay also won the 2012 series title as the only non-Ganassi, non-Penske to win it.

“Christian is extremely talented,” said Kanaan. “Christian is hot right now. Does Christian have Dixon’s experience that I need to bring to this team — the relentless, the championship mentality? None of my drivers have a championship. Teams that I’m going against have multiple guys that have multiple championships.

“And always it starts with the driver, how you’re going to push the team up? I think as much as we hang together — the culture, the mentality, you end up adjusting and adapting to them. And I know what Dixon has. It’s what I have. It’s what Hunter-Reay has.”

Christian Lundgaard’s strong campaign wasn’t enough for McLaren to retain him for 2027. 

And then there’s the Indy 500. Lundgaard’s strength has been on the road courses. He has an average finish of 14.8 in the Indianapolis 500 with one top-10 in five starts. This year, he has an average finish of 13.3 in the three oval races.

“I have one guy [currently in O’Ward] that has been really close [at Indy] and has been a burden for him … and the other two are not there yet, and I have to sit down with my boss and answer that,” Kanaan, the 2013 Indy 500 winner, said about the organization’s Indy 500 winning potential. “Our biggest slogan is the triple crown. I have to take that in consideration

“Can Christian win on the oval? 100 percent. Is Christian one of the biggest talents in the INDYCAR right now? 100 percent. What are the chances with the two drivers that I have coming in comparison to Christian to win the 500 in the next two years? Hard to argue that.”

Lundgaard is in his fifth season of INDYCAR racing, his second full-time year at McLaren after three years at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Rosenqvist is in his eighth year, with two years at Chip Ganassi Racing, three at McLaren (when it wasn’t as strong as it is now) and is finishing his third at Meyer Shank. Coming into this year, each had one INDYCAR victory.

“They both haven’t set the world on fire, I have to say,” Kanaan said. “They’re there, they’re the future. Felix won the 500 and I think Felix can win the 500 immediately.

“And we all don’t think Christian is there yet. He might prove me wrong next year, but it’s the choice that I make.”

Why would McLaren bring back a driver (Felix Rosenqvist) the team essentially fired three years ago after he went winless in 48 races?

Rosenqvist was a teammate of both Kanaan and O’Ward at McLaren and Dixon’s teammate at Ganassi, and they know the personality they are getting and how it will fit. O’Ward was the best man at Rosenqvist’s wedding.

Kanaan said chemistry is important, and this move to add the driver nicknamed “Fro” is part of that.

“He can win the 500,” Kanaan said about Rosenqvist. “He’s extremely fast. But Fro is the guy that is going to keep this team among the drivers together to lift the entire chemistry among them, the engineering room, and then it’s going to make it to the mechanics.

“And that is something that if anybody disagrees with me, I can prove to you 1,000 times that working in a good environment with people that lift you up and are not as selfish that they think about a team, it never fails. And this is the direction I want this team to go. This is how I want to run this team.”

Winning the 2026 Indy 500 boosted Felix Rosenqvist’s stock in the eyes of McLaren.

He believes Rosenqvist will help with the connection between O’Ward and Dixon.

“We are competitive, we have a lot of pressure, no deny,” Kanaan said. “But we need to have fun. There is no point to all of us spending that much time here and not have fun, and I think part of that is to feel like we’re a very unified team.

“Fro is going to bring a lot of that here, and he’s going to be the man in the middle between the two big stars.”

Is this just a way for McLaren to stick it to Ganassi considering the frosty Zak Brown-Chip Ganassi relationship?

It’s no secret that Brown and Ganassi don’t like each other. Brown signed Ganassi star Alex Palou, a contract that Palou eventually broke in order to stay at Ganassi. A bitter lawsuit followed, with McLaren getting a $12 million ruling that Ganassi was on the hook for as part of his contract with Palou. The two sides settled before an appeal was completed.

Kanaan bristled when it was implied that these moves were more about the team leaders and not the potential results.

“It was not at all, because I got the phone call [from Dixon],” Kanaan said. “It wasn’t me chasing. Although do I talk to Dixon all the time? Yeah. He’s my best friend. We hang around, but we always separate that quite well.

“He chose to leave. Nobody actually went and tried to pursue him. … Dixon decided to leave Ganassi and chose us.”

In Scott Dixon, McLaren is adding one of the all-time great drivers to its lineup.

So who wouldn’t take a driver with the second-most career wins (59) in INDYCAR history? 

“Of my generation, he is the A.J. Foyt, he is the legend,” Kanaan said.

Dixon finished third in the standings last year but won only one race. He sits ninth in the standings this year and is winless over 11 races. 

“We’re in this business to win races, and both teams have elevated their game because of their rivalry,” Kanaan said. “It didn’t do anybody any good what happened in the past two years. If you look back, everybody lost, right?”

Did Nolan Siegel just not improve fast enough?

Kanaan was the one who decided to hire Siegel, who also brings financial backing with him. Siegel finished 10th on Sunday at Mid-Ohio but sits 20th in the standings in his second full year with the team.

“We went on this battle together, we got hammered together,” Kanaan said. “And I stood by him, and I always will.”

Kanaan said he believes the 21-year-old Siegel still has a future in INDYCAR. And it possibly will be aligned with McLaren, which is pursuing resuming an alliance it formerly had with Juncos Hollinger Racing — and if it does, that could be a landing spot for Siegel.

Noaln Siegel’s brief time with McLaren is coming to an end.

“Is [that alliance] going to jeopardize the performance of the main team, depending how we’re going to structure that?” Kanaan said. “I haven’t had time to really spend a lot of saying, ‘What are the terms?’

“Is that a possibility? 100 percent. Maybe a month and a half, two months away from us developing that.”

Ultimately, Siegel didn’t show enough to prove that he could win relatively soon and Kanaan worried about the impact on his organization.

“If racing is good, life is good,” Kanaan said. “If racing is not good, life is not good, which is very unbalanced and not even fair at times. I have to make those changes because we don’t have that many years.

“I will not be able to have the motivation, the passion, and motivate my guys if we don’t win, and I live by that. I made plenty of right and wrong decisions my entire career, and as long as you believe in yourself and you make the people surrounding you believe it, then we’ve got to make it.”

And any qualms about having Hunter-Reay back for another year in the 500?

Kanaan had a simple answer for Hunter-Reay getting another year with McLaren as far as the driving side after a frustrating May where he never felt he had great speed and wrecked early in the race.

“I say the team principal [myself] is an Indy 500 winner, I have three drivers next year in the field that are three Indy 500 winners and Pato,” Kanaan said. “I like my chances.

“So I’m proud that Ryan’s back. … We’re going to give him a possibility to win again. And I think he deserves it.”

And were there any other major factors in this decision?

Oh, yes. The fact that in 2028, there will be a new car for the teams to race. The current car has been around since 2012 with, among other things, the aeroscreen and hybrid systems added.

Will the good vibes for Pato O’Ward and McLaren continue with a new team look in 2027?

That was a big part of signing Dixon.

“Dixon being the main guy on the new car, his experience, his feedback, his reference of 25 years at the top level, and how we do things — it is one of the biggest reasons [to have him],” Kanaan said.

“I got him here because on the ‘28 car we’re going to see a bigger difference between the teams. And I have to say we’re going to be talking about the top four teams and to go and fight … I have to have a Dixon. And [the change] is in preparation for that, for sure. I think even knowledge wise, I have a very, very fairly young group of guys with my lineup today. It would have been a big, big concern of mine for ’28.”