Alpine F1 junior Lundgaard signs multi-year IndyCar deal

Lundgaard has agreed a multi-year contract with the team after impressing on his IndyCar debut when he qualified a stunning fourth and went on to finish 12th at the Indianapolis road course in August. 

The 20-year-old Dane will join Jack Harvey and Graham Rahal in the RLL team’s three-car line-up for 2021, replacing two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato in the #30 entry. 

“I’m very excited to join Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in IndyCar," said Lundgaard.

"They are a fantastic team who made me feel very welcome earlier this year when I made my debut in the series. They are the perfect choice and I’m happy to join them on this next chapter in my career.

"I was very much open minded when I raced at Indianapolis in August and the experience then only grew my hunger to give it another go, so to have the opportunity as a full-time professional racing driver is a privilege. I can only thank Bobby, Piers [Phillips, RLL president] and the team, as well as my investors and Alpine for putting it all together.”

Lundgaard, who looks set to retain his links to Alpine, currently sits 11th in the 2021 Formula 2 championship going into the final two rounds of what is his second full-season in the series. 

He is a race winner in F2 and F3 and also finished runner-up to Max Fewtrell in the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2018, having won both the SMP F4 and Spanish F4 championships the previous year. 

“Of course, this will be a completely new challenge for me, especially with oval racing, which I’ve never done before,” Lundgaard added. 

“I’d like to think I’m a fast learner, so taking this on is going to be an awesome experience. For now, I’m not setting too many expectations other than working hard and enjoying the racing and hopefully the results will follow. 

“For now, though, my focus is on finishing the Formula 2 Championship before fully committing to taking on INDYCAR. I can’t wait for the experience to begin.”

Team co-owner Bobby Rahal said: “I’m very pleased that Christian will be joining us for the next several years. 

“His performance on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway certainly surprised everybody. For him to do the job he did was tremendous and certainly beyond our expectations. With a little more time under his belt, I think the performance would have been even stronger.

“Everyone within the team was very pleased and it created a lot of excitement and positive reactions from the fans on social media and online as well as a positive buzz in the paddock.

“Some may not know, but he had food poisoning so he wasn’t feeling 100 percent that day and yet to have the kind of weekend we had was great.”