David Malukas will make the switch from Dale Coyne Racing to Arrow McLaren for the 2024 IndyCar season.
The American is eagerly anticipating racing with his new team, and said the transition was as seamless as it could be in his first official press conference of 2024:
“Whatever the word for as smooth as possible would be. That would be how well it’s been. It’s been great.
“As soon as we came in, met everybody. Everybody is treating me like family. Actually a lot of the people there too, I have known since go-karting, so I have a lot of history with them too.
The young driver, twice on the podium with Coyne, has already settled in quite nicely in the team’s well oiled mechanisms:
“It’s been very cool, learning a lot. They have a lot of resources that I’m trying to use to the most of my capabilities.
“Tony Kanaan is there to help me and assist on that, and we’ve also done a little bit of testing. I’m already getting to know everybody.”
The Arrow McLaren team have been at the sharp end of the field in recent times, reaching the lofty heights of third in the championship with Pato O’Ward in 2021.
Although the outfit suffered a winless season last year, they delivered a multitude of podiums underlying their credentials as a front running team.
Arrow McLaren are yet to score a championship title against the might of Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing and have aspirations of going one step further.
Malukas shed light on his personal goals for the upcoming season and how they intertwine with the team’s targets.
“Now with Arrow McLaren, we are going for the top: podiums, wins. They are very competitive, and it’s the team to do it. That is going to be — my goals will coincide with that.”
IndyCar will introduce a hybrid element to the power unit this season, something which has suffered a difficult birth.
The electrical component was originally planned to be introduced at the season opener at St. Petersburg, but has been delayed until after the Indy 500 in May.
Malukas previously tested the hybrid system at the Brickyard in 2023 as a Papaya driver, and said that work could allow him to have a head start over the rest of the field when hybrid makes its debut.
“When it does come along, maybe it could be a little bit of a performance boost from my side just because I’ve had some of that testing involved. But from my side, it’s more just getting laps under my belt and helping me overall.
“I will also be able to get already kind of feedback of how the Arrow McLaren car and the setup is going to react between the two, so when the hybrid does come in later in the season, it will be something that I’ll have kind of that extra step to get to know it,” he concluded looking forward to the start of the season.
