After 100 hectic laps, of which he led the final part, Marcus Ericsson saw the chequered flag first to claim his first IndyCar victory since his Indy 500-win last May.
Just as his three previous IndyCar wins, the race was halted temporarily due to a red flag. Together with his bright red livery and overall, this prompted the question whether there is something more into this than plain coincidence, to which Ericsson replied:
“Yeah, it’s my thing, apparently,” the Swede told Pit Debrief and other media outlets.
“No, but it seems when a lot of things are happening — people are making mistakes and things are happening in the races, we seem to be able to stay cool, both me and the car, and the guys on the strategy and pit stops and everything. And we seem to be able to get everything together in those situations.
“All those races are very high intensity races. It’s not sort of straightforward races. There’s a lot of things happening. You need to be ready to adjust your strategy, pit stops, restarts. There’s a lot of things going on, and we seem to be very good at that. That’s definitely one of our strengths.
Not saying we cannot win without the red flag, but it’s definitely been working for us.”
It also prompted the question if he would want a “normal” race win, one where he just gets to the front and straightforwardly drives to the victory. To this the Swede had a message for his doubters:
“It seems whatever I do, people are thinking maybe I don’t deserve it or stuff like that. I don’t know, I won a lot of races, four races now in INDYCAR, and been at the top of the championship the last couple years, so I’m just going to keep to that.”
When asked who his doubters are, the former Formula 1-pilot responded that he doesn’t really know and doesn’t really care, saying:
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m here to win. I want to win a championship. I want to win another 500. That’s our goals, and what other people say doesn’t really matter. But I think we’ve proven last year and the year before that we can be up front and run, fighting for a championship. We just need to keep doing that, and what people say, I don’t really mind too much.”
And Ericsson thinks he deserved the win. Staying out of trouble is of course one part, but once he got into contention for the win, he laid down everything he had to try and outsmart Pato O’Ward, eventually resulting in the mishap from the Mexican.
“No, I think we deserved to win. We did a great weekend. We were there when they had an issue, did a mistake or whatever that was to happen. Like I said, if he had that two-second gap that he got after the restart, he could have had that issue and he would have won anyway because he only lost half a second or something. But we were right on his gearbox and that’s why we could get by. That’s racing. Things happen. That’s why you need to be there until the end.
“Yeah, I feel a bit bad for him, but I still think we deserved that win.
“I think I knew over a stint we were probably a bit stronger than McLaren. He looked a bit struggling through the rears and I was catching him, and then I wanted to put pressure on him to try and see if he did a small mistake so I could get an opportunity to go for an overtake. Of course, second is a good start to the season but a win is perfect. I was going to put the pressure on and try and go for it. I had built up an advantage on the Push-to-Pass, as well, so I was definitely going to have a go.”
The defending Indy 500-champion also received support from several beanie-wearing countrymen, of whom he knows two. A welcome support that has every reason to celebrate now, support he might “need to invite to the 500 now so I can have my own fan club there.”
But before the month of May is upon the IndyCar drivers, there are three more races to go, starting with the PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway on the 2nd of April.
