Marcus Armstrong: Kiwi IndyCar driver on his new team, the new season

It’s shaping up to be a massive year for Kiwi IndyCar driver Marcus Armstrong. 

He’s joined up with Meyer Shank Racing, joining Felix Rosenqvist in the team's lineup – competing on all the oval, road, and street races. 

Armstrong comes from a background of F4, Formula 3 and Formula 2, and told Mike Hosking that over the years he feels like he’s grown better at working with his team. 

“There’s 350 people that we work closely with, and making sure that we communicate properly and explain our thoughts of how we want the car to be developed without, y’know... involving your ego too much.” 

“So, being very self-critical and honest about what we can do better from a team perspective, and communicating properly. I think that’s probably the thing I’ve improved in the most.” 

In IndyCar, you’re often racing at speeds averaging about 240 miles an hour, a speed that’s hard for the human brain to keep up with. 

“You need to keep your eyes 200 meters further ahead than what you’re used to,” Armstrong told Hosking. 

“If you sort of look where you normally look, you’re already past that point.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think a lot of good stuff is going to
happen on racetracks around the world this year, and a
lot of it's going to involve Kiwi's. For Marcus Armstrong,
the IndyCar Dreams goes well, basically next level. We've got
a new team and he's in all the formats as
he was last year, Oval, Road and Sweet. The first
of the season is Pete's and Petersburg March too, of course,
and Marcus Armstrong is with us. Marcus Morning, Happy.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
New Year, good morning, thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Not at all. Did you get home for Christmas at all?
And if you did, did you drive anything?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I was very lucky to get back to New Zealand
for a split second. My trips are often short and sweet,
but yes I did, guess in a race car with
my old man. Actually he's a pretty good driver himself.
So we do a couple of track days out at
Hampton Downs in a Porsche Cup car when we can,

(00:49):
and it's a lot of fun and I actually get
reduced to engineer, so it's pretty fun.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Fantastic as a father who You're right, he is a
very good driver of him within to save of the
summer and stuff like that. He must be stoked at
your progress beyond it, I mean, he must be thrilled
at what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, he sure is. He's quite analytical. I would say
he's my biggest critic outside of my own team. So no, no,
he's fantastic. And it's great that he understands the sport
because there's so much to it. There's so many variables.
For example, you know you could do your job perfectly

(01:30):
as a driver, but you know you have a team
of three hundred and fifty people and if someone does
make a mistake then it impacts you on track. So
he understands that and he's very good. He's very supportive.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Not that there's anything wrong with a cap car, a
nine to eleven cup car, because they're a great car.
But when you've driven what you've driven, is it a
bit slow?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well I don't want to say that, but yes it is.
It's to be fair, it feels like a bit of
a taxi when you come from racing high downforce cars
like like IndyCar. You know, when we have three four
tons of downforce on the car at top speed and
you go to a Porsche Cup car, which you know

(02:14):
might have a couple hundred kilos of downforce and a
lot less horsepower, so it's still good training. I mean,
every race car is good from a training point of view,
just because you always want to feel how the cars
moving and stay sharp. But for sure there will be
a slight adjustment period jumping back into a very high downforced,

(02:37):
high horse powered car.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
How much better are you as a driver and in
what areas have you improved?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
That's a very good question. The thing is with this sport, there's,
like I said, so many variables. I would say that
in more recent years. You know, it's not for me
to say, of course, but I feel like I work
with my team a lot better. As I said, there's
three hundred and fifty people that we work closely with,

(03:05):
and making sure that we communicate properly and explain our
thoughts of how we want the car to be developed
without you know, putting your ego, involving your ego too much,
because you start to you start to give poor feedback
when your ego gets involved. So being very self critical
and honest about what we can do better from a

(03:26):
team perspective, and just communicating properly. I think that's probably
the thing I've improved in the most recent years.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
How much technically changes from season to season In terms
of the cars.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Indy car is reasonably stable. You will know Scott Dixon,
of course, who has been racing forever. I mean, you know,
he was my childhood hero. And the cars actually haven't
changed dramatically since, you know, since twenty ten. I think
we have the same chassis. We've had the same chassis

(04:02):
since twenty thirteen. But of course, you know, they always
throw curveballs. There's a couple of new tire regulations and
different center of gravity and weight distribution and things like
this that actually make a bigger impact than you'd think,
especially when everyone's in such a routine of bringing the

(04:22):
same set ups year after year. So the smallest regulation
changes do actually make a big difference, as they have
this year. You know, they've changed hire compounds and often
we don't know what we have until the very first race.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
How much testing and how much driving are you doing
between now and March, which is pete.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'll be honest, it kind of sucks this offseason because
we haven't done any testing, and in fact it's you know,
we all want to be on track, of course, but
the regulation state that we can only do one official
day of testing before the season starts. So you know,
when I was back in New Zealand, the SB Classic
was on and all those tennis players are playing tennis

(05:04):
for five hours a day and all of that, and
you know, we can't do that. So it's one of
those unique sports where you can't actually practice your own sport,
which makes preparation and teamwork so much more important because
you kind of have to hit the ground running, you know,
you can't ease your way into the.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
Season, right, Marcus, three hundred and fifty people, what do
they all do?

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yes, Well, there's a lot of people that there's a
lot of engineers for a start, I mean we have
simulation engineers and DASA engineers and all the rest of them.
And obviously we have the mechanics. There's a lot of
mechanics involved and research and development guys. Yeah. I mean

(05:49):
also you know, not to mention the media and everyone
who looks after the sponsors and so there's it's just
a big, a big organization, so important it will be
on the same page.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
In a general sense in sport. Globally, at the moment,
sports seems to be on a real tear. I mean,
you know, you look at the NFL that's growing, You
look at motorsport, it's growing. Do you feel that in
America and Indie Car, Is Indy Car as strong as
it's ever been?

Speaker 2 (06:17):
I think so, and I think it's getting stronger. Frankly,
you know, this season we have Fox Sports taking over,
so it's going to be you know, every single race
will be broadcasted on network TV, and you know, NBC
did a great job as well. But you know, Formula
One has obviously exploded in the States because of the
Netflix show, and that has also transferred over to IndyCar.

(06:41):
And frankly, IndyCar has the best racing product in the world,
Like there's just no doubt about it. And I think
people are starting to recognize that, especially especially people ever sees.
I think that in America people have always recognized the
quality of IndyCar racing, but certainly in New Zealand and
in Europe as well, people are truly recognizing the quality

(07:05):
of this racing product.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
I tell you what, I talked to Scott mcgochlin when
he was we did the Indie thing and the qualifying
at Indy and those on board cameras when you're going
around as in the brickyard, when you're going around that place.
In qualifying the speeds, you guys go, it's faster than
the brain. I mean obviously not literally faster than the

(07:27):
brain can calculate, otherwise you kill yourself. But it must
be so close to.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
That, oh, definitely. And it's difficult to explain really, But
luckily last year was my first time, so I sort
of have a fresh memory when it comes to sort
of my first impression, which was first firstly, you need
to keep your eyes two hundred meters further ahead than
what you're used to because if you sort of look
where you normally look, you're already past that point, so

(07:54):
your eyes almost don't move fast enough for the car speed.
And you know, two hundred forty mile an hour or
two thirty three average, you know, that's it's pretty extraordinary speeds.
But as well that, you know, no one really talks
about the g load where you can't you can't actually

(08:15):
breathe when you're under full g load in the corner,
so you kind of need to be prepared to just
hold your breath in those high g load compression areas
and remember to keep your eyes up because it's it's
a wild ride.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
It's amazing. Maya Shank is your new team. There was
a mister Meyer and a mister Shank. How did that
come about?

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yes, new team this year. However, in theory it's still
under the Chip Inc. Racing banner with the technical Alliance.
So I'm very lucky to keep my engineering core, so
my lead engineers and my data engineers I managed to
I've managed to keep with me. So we're going to

(08:58):
have some form of continuous here, which is important in
a championship. That's that's compartive and fundamentally, we're going to
keep the same car setup philosophy, which helps me to
as I said at the ground running. So I'm I'm
pretty lucky. I feel optimistic about the season, and I've
got to say that we're light years ahead of where

(09:18):
we were last year just from it from a technical
point of view. So I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
As you should be. Mate. Listen, go well, always good,
always great pleasure to catch up with you, and hopefully
we'll talk during the season as well. But we'll watch
on with a great deal of interest.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
No worries mate Marcus Armstrong out of I think some
what do we say? It was Indianapolis at the moment
ahead of the first race in the early part of
March at Saint Petersburg in Florida. For more from the
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