McLaughlin's pole a 'just thank you' for his team

Third in the championship the last two seasons, McLaughlin arrives in Florida as one of the favorites for the title. A status he fully assumed in qualifying, by winning pole position. The New Zealander beat Colton Herta (Andretti), who beat him in the 2024 championship. The two men thus clearly show Álex Palou that he will have competition on the road to his potential third consecutive title. However, the Team Penske driver's weekend did not start in the best way, with an accident at the end of the session on Friday, which gave his team extra work.

« It's a credit to the team, because I gave them some work last night. They stayed here until 20:30 p.m. Come back and take pole position… I don't want to keep doing this, but at the end of the day, if I do this and I get pole the next day, it more than makes up for it.", McLaughlin explained at a press conference Saturday. « Ultimately, you hate giving the crew extra work, exceeding garage hours, etc. Anything you can do to thank them. They always tell you to go get the pole, that it would be a just thank you."

In addition to the repairs to the front-left, McLaughlin and his team still had to work on the balance of the Dallara-Chevrolet n°3. Mission accomplished in Q1, but which almost turned into disappointment in Q2. The Kiwi in fact got out of this second part of qualifying by a hair's breadth, with a lead of three thousandths over Marcus Ericsson (Andretti). Time to remobilize, and the car Red and white were back on top in Q3.

The best is the enemy of the good

« Basically, from the first group in Q1, I really felt that the car had energy in it. In Q2, we kind of wanted to go for even better, and we lacked balance. Once we got the balance back in place for Q3, I knew from the first run that it was going to be pretty good. We had to give it our all, I did a flat out lap, like everyone else. I felt like I had a lot more confidence in the car."

A year after finishing on the podium in St. Petersburg, Scott McLaughlin's goal is the same this year. Preferably without the disqualification that followed six weeks later for illegal use of the push-to-pass… « We just want to have a good race on Sunday. Ideally, a victory. But if you can leave here with a podium or a top 5, that's already something. It's a nice feeling to take those points and move forward. For me, I need a better start than I've had in recent years to make sure I'm not chasing my tail halfway through the year." Answer from 18:30 p.m. tonight…

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