Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel enters the 2026 IndyCar season under pressure from Arrow McLaren. Completing his first full IndyCar season in 2025, Siegel finished 22nd in the standings, with a highest finish of P8 at Road America. Comparatively, teammates Pato O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard finished 2nd and 5th, respectively.
In an interview with Motorsport, Arrow McLaren Team Prinicipal Tony Kanaan spoke frankly about the young driver’s future.
“To me, he [Siegel] needs to finish in the top 10 in the championship, and if not, I don’t think I can keep him.
“But not the result only because there’s many ways, like if he ran there [in the top 10], I know if he’s doing it and somebody hits you every race, what are you gonna do, right?”
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other outlets during IndyCar Content Days, Siegel responded to the comments made by Kanaan.
Siegel in the hot seat for 2026 IndyCar season
The young Californian’s career with Arrow McLaren began in June 2024 when he was announced to pilot the No. 6 car — a controversial decision that meant recently signed Théo Pourchaire got dropped from the team midseason. Siegel put in modest performances, with a season-best finish of P7 at the Bommarito 500. He began his first full IndyCar season in 2025, managing to score 213 points across the season.
With the Arrow McLaren Team Principal setting high standards for the young driver, Siegel is under pressure to show an increase in performance heading into the 2026 IndyCar season.
When asked about Kanaan’s comments to the media, Siegel responded, “Yeah, he was quite frank about that in the media, for sure.
“I think to me it doesn’t really change anything. The goal for me is always to finish as far up the grid as I possibly can and perform at my best all the time. So I show up every weekend, I’m pushing myself as far as I can and trying to perform the best that I possibly can.
“It’s not like if the goal is to finish in the top five, I’m like, Oh, okay, I’ll push a little harder to get there, I don’t want to finish seventh, I want to finish fifth. I want to finish as far up as I possibly can every weekend. That doesn’t change for 2026.
“Whatever the expectation is, I’m still going to be doing the same thing.”
Siegel “not super concerned” about Kanaan’s comments
The Arrow McLaren driver expressed confidence in his performance heading into the 2026 season. While Siegel had not yet spoken to Kanaan about his comments, he claimed he is not concerned about his future.
When asked if he’d spoken to Kanaan after his comments, Siegel replied, “I haven’t really. He’s been super busy. It’s been a really busy off-season with the new shop opening. We’ve got a lot of new people. I’m sure it’s been very chaotic for him. I’ve been kind of on the sports car side, trying to stay in a race car, put myself in the best possible position from a driving standpoint.“
“I haven’t really talked to him about that. As I said, I don’t think it changes a whole lot for him. Him having been a driver, I think he knows exactly how it feels, right? He knows we’re pushing as hard as we can and are doing our best every weekend. I think he sees it from that side, as well.
“I have not talked to him directly about it. I’m sure we’ll have a chat. I’m not really super concerned about that. I think he knows me well enough to know where we’re at on that front.
“There’s not a whole lot to talk through. There’s no issue. I’m excited to continue working with T.K. I hope he’s excited to continue working with me. I hope we have a good season together.“
Handling the pressure
In light of his uncertain future with Arrow McLaren, Siegel emphasized that pressure is a natural part of IndyCar ahead of the 2026 season. The young Californian asserted that he will perform at the highest standard regardless of external pressures.
“Again, I think there’s always pressure when you’re competing at this level. For me, I think the pressure comes more internally. Again, I want to perform at my best. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to challenge myself to compete at the highest level. Ultimately if I do perform, there will be a future. If I don’t, there won’t.
“That’s always how it’s going to be in motorsport, that’s how it is for everyone in motorsport — that’s how it is even if you’re established. That’s kind of the nature of being a professional athlete. If you perform, you have a job. If you don’t, you don’t.
“I’m here to push myself to perform at my absolute best. That doesn’t change based on other people’s expectations.”
Siegel on lessons to take into 2026 IndyCar season
Nolan Siegel aims for improvement heading into the 2026 IndyCar season. While Siegel found his race pace to be a strength, he admitted that he has work to do in terms of his execution. The young driver got caught up many incidents, including a last-lap crash at the 2025 Indy 500, and another crash in Iowa that left him unable to compete in the weekend’s second race.
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other outlets, Siegel believed he could make big changes heading into the 2026 IndyCar season.
“I think for me, we had a lot of weekends where the pace was actually really good. Just the execution wasn’t quite there in a lot of different ways. For me, it’s been a learning experience being a part of such a big team and being a leader in that team.
“I think I’ve kind of grown in that role and gotten better in that role. That’s been a challenge, but something I’ve kind of embraced and really tried to learn from, again, my more experienced teammates, Tony [Kanaan]. T.K. is really good at that, a good leader and someone that people want to work hard for. I think seeing that mindset from him has been helpful for me.
“I think from an actual driving standpoint, in IndyCar I feel like there are very critical phases of the races. Some phases where you can kind of chill and save fuel, save tires, save yourself, then portions of the race during pit sequences where you really have to push. That’s where you really make a difference.
“For me, kind of understanding when those critical phases are I think is important and something that I learned in 2025. There were a couple races where we lost some ground just from me kind of not reading the race properly from in the car.
“I’ve reviewed all of that and I think that I can make big gains there for ’26.”
