The third and final equation that remained to be solved in the puzzle of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has been cleared this Wednesday by announcing that Christian lundgaard He will drive the team’s # 30 car beginning in the 2022 IndyCar season on a multi-year contract. Faced with the interest of other talents such as Oliver Askew and Santino Ferrucci, who drove the team’s third car for much of 2021, the 20-year-old Dane was chosen after his impressive debut last August.
With the only baggage of having played a test a few days before, the Alpine junior jumped in to compete at the Brickyard Grand Prix and put on a portentous performance, being seventh in the only free practice session and fourth in the qualifying session, the best of the team all year, and that could have been a pole had it not been for an internal confusion about the change of format of the same. In the race, Lundgaard paid for the hazing by falling to 12th final position, but his message had gotten through, and weighed more than the optimal results obtained by Ferrucci and Askew in the eight races they contested.
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Lundgaard’s announcement occurs when his second Formula 2 season with ART Grand Prix has not yet come to an end, in the absence of the Arab events in Jeddah and Yas Marina. With three podiums in total, it occupies the eleventh position in the table, four places below that exhibited the previous year. Previously, Lundgaard had been sixth in his only Formula 3 season in 2019 (being the best ART driver by far), runner-up in his 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup debut and double champion of Formula 4 in the Spanish championship and the NEZ contest with MP Motorsport.
Despite the multi-year nature of his contract, Lundgaard retains membership in the Alpine Academy, at least for now. Rahal’s particular ‘evaluation’ winner was initially expected to occupy # 45, but the change in plans to place newcomer Jack Harvey in the Hy-Vee sponsored car changed plans. Although the Dane will have the car number that Takuma Sato used until this year, the entire team that worked with the Japanese goes to # 45, so # 30 will be in effect this year’s expansion at the level of mechanics and engineers.
“Rahal is a fantastic team who made me feel welcome when I made my debut in the category,” Lundgaard said in the official statement. “They are the perfect choice, and I am happy to start the next chapter in my career with them. I came to Indianapolis with an open mind, and the experience only fueled my desire to do it again., so having the opportunity to be a full-time professional driver is a privilege. This will be a completely new experience for me, especially on the ovals. I would like to believe that I am a fast learner. For now, I don’t set any more expectations for myself than hard work, and hopefully, the results will come.