Rossi: Arrow McLaren SP’s performance has “exponentially increased”

The seven-time IndyCar race-winner was confirmed on Thursday as an Arrow McLaren SP driver from 2023, his departure from Andretti Autosport having been confirmed on Wednesday.

“I think it's been very obvious what Zak Brown [McLaren Racing CEO] and Taylor [Kiel, AMSP team president] have done over the last couple of years,” said Rossi, explaining his decision to switch. “Arrow McLaren SP's competitive. The overall performance of the team has exponentially increased every event we go to.

“That was a pretty easy decision for me to see them as a championship contender. Going forward into the future, I think it's only going to get better.”

He then added: “Taylor and Zak got control and got to have the direction of the team not too long ago. What they've accomplished in a short period of time speaks for itself. The results they had last year. [I have] a huge amount of respect for Pato obviously, but he's still new to the championship, relatively young [so] the results he had were phenomenal.

“I think the inherent performance is there, it exists. I think if you look at what the team did at Indy this year, they were the second strongest team. I think what Ganassi was able to do was phenomenal. We've all touched on that. I think Arrow McLaren SP was certainly the next best shot.

“Yeah, I think this is a team that is going to be a championship challenger. They already were last year, they will be this year, I certainly think it will be the case going forward.”

Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport Honda

Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images

Rossi said that the decision to depart Andretti Autosport, his home since switching from Formula 1 in 2016, was made last summer, but it wasn’t immediately obvious which team he would