THE WINNER WHO’S STILL LEARNING

“G’day,” says Felix Rosenqvist in “ a passable Swede-attempting-a-Down-Under accent as he picks up the phone to Autosport. For a man who’s spent his IndyCar Series career to date absorbing all he can from his illustrious Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Scott Dixon, it seems that it’s not just in the areas of driving, set-up or racecraft that he’s been influenced by the Aussie-born Kiwi.

Aside from picking up random speech mannerisms, for Rosenqvist it’s been the trials and tribulations of working an IndyCar race that have meant a very steep learning curve. Since winning the 2015 Formula 3 European Championship, his career had moved in maverick directions, quick in a variety of machinery in Europe, North America and Japan. It was a couple of eye-opening tests at Mid-Ohio – a year apart – that encouraged Ganassi to take a punt on him with a two-year deal for 2019-20. And, finally, that