Christian Lundgaard
Christian Lundgaard is a Danish professional racing driver who currently drives the No. 7 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren in the IndyCar Series. He previously competed with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in No. 45 car. He was the 2022 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year, and was a member of the Alpine Academy from 2017 until 2022.
Lundgaard began his single-seater career in 2017, where he won the F4 Spanish and SMP F4 Championship in his debut year. In 2018, he made a move to the Formula Renault Eurocup, where he placed runner-up to Max Fewtrell. He secured a promotion to ART Grand Prix in the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship where he ended 6th. Lundgaard continued with ART Grand Prix for the 2020 Formula 2 Championship and took two wins to place 7th overall. However, a poor 2021 season saw him make a switch to IndyCar for 2022.
Lundgaard won his first IndyCar race at the 2023 Honda Indy Toronto, becoming the first Danish driver to ever win an IndyCar race.
Junior career
Karting
Lundgaard began karting professionally in 2012. He competed all across Europe and collected three major titles along the way, including the 2015 CIK-FIA Karting European Championship. In December 2016, Lundgaard was ranked fifth on a list compiled by Motorsport.com of the top ten karting drivers with future potential.Lower formulae
In 2017, Lundgaard made his single-seater debut in the SMP F4 and Spanish F4 championships with MP Motorsport, at the age of fifteen. In SMP F4, he claimed nine victories, seven pole positions and ten fastest laps and claimed the championship with one round to go. In the Spanish F4 Championship, Lundgaard won six races, including all the races at Aragón to become champion.Formula Renault Eurocup
In 2018, after testing with them at the post-season test, Lundgaard reunited with MP Motorsport for the Eurocup championship. His first podium of the season came with a third place during the second race at Paul Ricard. His win would not be too far away, as he took his first victory in the series during the next round at Monza, defended from Lorenzo Colombo and duly taking the lead of the championship. A retirement and four consecutive fifth-placed finishes followed, before he was back on the podium during the second race at the Red Bull Ring. The next round at Spa-Francorchamps, saw Lundgaard win the first race and take the Eurocup lead. A double podium including a win at the Hungaroring saw him into serious championship contention. However, a double retirement at the Hockenheimring left his championship chances dented and trailing leader and fellow Renault junior Max Fewtrell by 36.5 points heading into the final round. Despite "taking more risk" to claim a win and a second place at the final round in Barcelona, he was unable to overhaul the points tally of Fewtrell, leaving the British driver to be crowned champion by 17.5 points. In an article by Motorsport.com, Lundgaard was ranked thirteenth of their top-twenty junior drivers in 2018.GP3 Series
In June 2018, Lundgaard joined MP for the third round of the 2018 championship at Paul Ricard. In December, he returned for the final post-season test, driving for ART Grand Prix.FIA Formula 3 Championship
Following his success in Formula Renault, Lundgaard was linked with a seat at ART Grand Prix for the inaugural FIA Formula 3 Championship. In January 2019, the French outfit confirmed Lundgaard would race with them, alongside Eurocup rival Max Fewtrell and David Beckmann. Before the season, Lundgaard competed in the last round of the Asian F3 Winter series.During the first round at Barcelona, Lundgaard qualified second for his first race. He passed polesitter Robert Shwartzman at the start and never looked back to win the race, but was demoted five seconds for exceeding the virtual safety car delta. Nevertheless, it was his first podium in Formula 3. He followed it up with sixth in Race 2. The next two rounds were poor for Lundgaard, he retired in the first race at Le Castellet due to a broken suspension, but recovered to fifteenth the next day. At Austria, Lundgaard qualified fifth but was disqualified from qualifying due to a physio issue. Contact with Yifei Ye saw him only finish 26th in the first race, and climbed to seventeenth in the second.
In Silverstone, Lundgaard started fourth in Race 1 and passed Marcus Armstrong at the start but would eventually fall to seventh. Starting second in Race 2, he was passed by both Pedro Piquet and Leonardo Pulcini on the final lap. Lundgaard lost more positions but benefitted from a collision in the end to secure fifth place. In the Hungaroring, Lundgaard had a breakthrough weekend, topping practice and then later taking his first ever F3 pole. He had a dominant race and led teammate Fewtrell home to take his win in the series. In Race 2, he claimed fifth place, which kept him in championship contention. In Spa-Francorchamps, Lundgaard qualified all the way down in 13th, but finished fourth in both races.
In Monza, Lundgaard took his second pole of the year. He would not score any more points for the rest of the season. In Race 1, Lundgaard was overtaken by Lirim Zendeli at the start of the race. However, on lap three, he made contact with Zendeli, which damaged Lundgaard's front wing. He pitted for a front wing change and finished thirteenth. In Race 2, Lundgaard progressed to ninth place, missing out on a point. In Sochi, Lundgaard qualified fifth, but was hit at the back by Jüri Vips and fell near the back. He improve to finish fourteenth, and then in Race 2 finished tenth. Lundgaard ended the championship in sixth place with 97 points, as the leading ART Grand Prix driver. He scored a win and another podium during the season. Lundgaard then took part in post-season testing in October, where he topped the first and second days.
Lundgaard reunited with ART to contest the Macau Grand Prix, which saw him finish third in the qualification race and fourth in the main event.
FIA Formula 2 Championship
2019
In November 2019, it was announced Lundgaard would partake in the season finale at Yas Marina with Trident, replacing Ralph Boschung. Lundgaard finished the races in fourteenth and twelfth, ending 23rd in the championship.2020
After taking part in post-season testing with ART Grand Prix, In January, it was announced that Lundgaard would drive for the French outfit during the full 2020 Formula 2 season alongside 2019 Formula 3 runner-up Marcus Armstrong. Lundgaard missed the whole of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in his hotel, therefore he was forced to be quarantined for several days. Due to the mentioned virus, the season would eventually be postponed to July. During the lockdown, Lundgaard participated in various 2020 Virtual Grands Prix for Renault.For the first round at the Red Bull Ring, Lundgaard qualified fourth and finished in the same position, taking advantage of a car issue for Guanyu Zhou and a mistake for Mick Schumacher late in the race. He finished the sprint race where he started, in fifth place, marking a solid Formula 2 debut for Lundgaard. During the second Red Bull Ring round, he took eighth place in qualifying. He put a small overtaking masterclass in early wet part of the feature race, moving up to fourth at one point, but he would eventually finish sixth. In the sprint race from third, Lundgaard moved past teammate Armstrong at the start, and then later on Dan Ticktum. He then came through for his maiden F2 win, winning by two seconds. On his performance so far, Lundgaard said that it was "better than expected" following missing testing. His strong showing saw him second in the standings, five points behind leader Robert Shwartzman.
Lundgaard qualified sixth at Hungary and moved up to fourth at the start of the feature race. However, when trying to pass Luca Ghiotto, he hit his rear tyre, causing damage to Lundgaard's front wing and puncturing his tyre. He eventually retired on lap ten. Lundgaard made a recovery charge in the sprint race and finished thirteenth. In Silverstone, Lundgaard started third due to Callum Ilott stalling. Nikita Mazepin passed him at the start but eventually moved back into third after dispatching polesitter Felipe Drugovich. He was in second place during the final stages of the race, but during the final three laps was passed by Guanyu Zhou and Yuki Tsunoda on fresher tyres, falling to fourth place. In the sprint race, Lundgaard made a good start, jumping to second on the first lap. A spin for Ilott mid-race saw Lundgaard pit for tyres, he charged back to second late in the race but ran out of time to catch eventual winner Dan Ticktum. In the second Silverstone round, Lundgaard qualified second missing out on pole to Ilott, admitting that a mistake costed a chance of a maiden pole. In the feature race, he dropped to fourth at the start but quickly moved back to second shortly. He eventually finished in that position, nine seconds behind winner Ilott. In the sprint race while running seventh, Lundgaard's front-left tyre punctured on lap sixteen which dropped him to last place. In the Barcelona round, Lundgaard had an inferior weekend, he finished both races in eleventh place.
In Spa-Francorchamps, Lundgaard qualified in a disappointing seventeenth place and finished the feature race in the same position. He had a lightning start in the sprint race, moving to ninth by lap four. He eventually finished the race in seventh place, and despite the result, fell out of the top five in the standings. In Monza, Lundgaard started fourth, and moved to second after the pit stops after Ilott's slow pit stop. On the third last lap however, Ghiotto passed him and Lundgaard eventually finished in third place. Lundgaard charged to third place in the sprint race, benefitting on retirements from Tsunoda and Zhou. However, he was promoted to second place after Ticktum was disqualified. In Mugello, Lundgaard claimed his maiden pole, five thousandths of a second ahead of Ticktum. He led majority of the race until the safety car restart on lap 31 of 33, where Lundgaard was passed by both Hitech drivers on fresher tyres. His rivals later also overtook him, dropping him to sixth when the chequered flag fell. In the sprint race, Lundgaard passed Jüri Vips and Artem Markelov to storm into the lead by the first corner. He eventually won the race by an astonishing 14 seconds and moved into third in the championship.
In Sochi, Lundgaard qualified in sixth place. However, a slow getaway saw him drop down the order, before being hit by Pedro Piquet saw Lundgaard's race come to a close. A red-flagged sprint race saw Lundgaard end 13th. Heading into the final two rounds of the season, Lundgaard sat fourth in the standings, 46 points behind leader Schumacher. In the first Bahrain round, Lundgaard finished the feature race in nineteenth, but stormed through the field to finish sixth in the sprint race. In the final round of the season, Lundgaard finished both races out of the points, as during the feature race he stalled from sixth on the grid whilst also causing a small controversy of unlapping the race leaders while battling. Lundgaard finished 7th in the championship with 149 points, massively outscoring teammate Armstrong's 52 whilst helping ART finish fifth in the championship.