Things I learned catching up on MP IndyCar podcasts.
1. The Rosenqvist saga was driven in part this year by personal issues with his girlfriend, who is no longer in the picture. But when he was willing to return to Europe, it was largely because she was homesick.
2. O'Ward and Rosenqvist have a genuinely close friendship, one of the tightest between teammates Pruett states he's seen in years.
3. Kiel's departure caught McLaren by surprise. There is no obvious internal replacement.
4. Since Kiel came up with Schmidt and is family with Mike Hull, MP broadly hinted McLaren's (emphatically not AMSP's) buccaneer approach to paddock relations may have played a role. Stay tuned.
5. Rosenqvist is highly regarded among teams and, had he been available, would have easily found a home. Juncos was interested, as was RLL. Surprised there are openings at RLL? Me too, but nothing else was said, other than that MP hopes to have Jack Harvey on a future "Catching Up" podcast, so my guess is it would have been to replace Graham.
He did mention in an article (EDIT: Page 2 of the Mailbag https://racer.com/20...september-21/2/) that Harvey would have been paid out if Rosenqvist had become available, but that since he wasn't, it didn't arise as a possibility, although third party rumours said it was on.
But he also stressed that there were many fathers to that failure at RLL this year, even if it is claimed to be an orphan.
Edited by juicy sushi, 23 September 2022 - 22:21.