Nolan Siegel on his rapid McLaren rise: '2 months have felt like 3 years'

Not that La Sarthe a walk in the park. Along with team-mates Oliver Jarvis and Bijoy Garg, the No22 LMP2 car came through to win one of the toughest races in recent memory, with heavy rain storms and a four-hour safety car period through the night. It’s a test which may well prove to be the making of Siegel.

“It was definitely the most gruelling endurance race I’ve done,” he says. “I’ve done Daytona three times and Sebring, all the big ones in the US and nothing quite compared to that.

“Most people I think said that this year was one of the most challenging from a weather standpoint.

“Jumping in at night in the pouring rain, or where it’s raining on some parts of the track and not others – it’s really difficult to figure out how hard you can push, especially when it’s 3am.

“It went safety car when I was in – I’ve never had such a hard time staying on the track under safety car.”

It’s been reported that United boss Richard Dean was significantly impressed by Siegel’s highly detailed feedback and approach. Zak Brown was on hand that weekend to see it firsthand too. Does Siegel think that race was pivotal in getting hired by McLaren?

“I certainly don’t think it hurt!” he replies. “I really enjoyed working with both of them, I think that certainly made a difference. I’m glad that we were able to start this relationship in a way with that weekend.”

And so, just a week after Le Mans, with the dust barely settled from the shock news that he’d replace Pourchaire in McLaren’s IndyCar line-up, Siegel found himself on the grid at Laguna Seca – one of the US’s most formidable tracks.

A 27-car field often spells chaos in the ultra competitive IndyCar championship, but Siegel thinks his rollercoaster 2024 up to that point only helped him in those pressure-cooker moments – no more so than in the dusty Californian hills.

“Definitely – I feel like this year has had a lot of high pressure and low [amount] of preparation-type weekends which have been really difficult,” he says.

“At the end of the day, those weekends aren’t necessarily set up for immediate success on the results side, but I think that they teach me a ton – Laguna was one of those weekends.”

Lining up 23 out of 27 cars, Siegel thought it might have been all over when he span off early – his profuse apologies over the team radio illustrated how it looked like this might be a nightmare start to his McLaren career.

“Those are never great moments, right?” he says. “It’s tough because these races, everyone’s working really hard. At the end of the day, one mistake that I made can throw away all that work.

“I’m lucky we stayed on the lead lap – if anything, it allowed us to get off sequence [on an alternate tyre strategy] and I think we actually picked up a few spots because of it.”

Siegel bided his time, and in the midst of a number of safety car periods in the closing laps, moved up the field while others collided, crashed out or fell off the track. By finishing 12th, in just his third IndyCar race, Siegel made more progress than any other competitor in an accomplished effort.

The young racer admits to a feeling of relief after his appointment was met with some scepticism in the racing girl – replacing the impressive Pourchaire with the relatively unproven Siegel.

“It was great,” he says. “There were a lot of question marks at the beginning of the weekend, and I think we answered a lot of those questions in the race. Nobody really knew where we were gonna stack up. I think everyone was a little bit relieved!”

Now he’ll get to a compete with at least a few days preparation going into this weekend’s Mid-Ohio race – a little different to the last-minute opportunities he’s had so far, and at last some sense of normality in an extraordinary racing year.

“It’s feeling more natural, feeling more like a regular job now,” he says.

“Being at the shop today, being at the test day where we can focus more on performance, rather than just learning how to work with each other.

“I’m looking forward to Mid-Ohio, I actually feel like there could be potential for a really strong finish.

“If we’re in contention for podiums, I think that’s the goal from our side.”

He might struggle to match the last few months for pure excitement again, but this could just be the start of a brilliant racing story for Nolan Siegel.