Alexander Rossi is many things – an Indianapolis 500 champion, nine-year veteran in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, a pilot and a husband, among others. He continues to evolve into various roles as his accomplished career in racing continues. 

As he enters his second season in papaya, he’s now taken on a new role: the senior leader of the three Arrow McLaren drivers.  

“I don’t know that I love being called senior, but here we are,” Alexander says. 

Coming into 2024, he carries a wealth of experience and lessons that will help him and the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet compete for the championship. He learned a lot of lessons in his first season with Arrow McLaren, which should help him and his crew this season.  

As he and the team continue preparing for the 17-race schedule, it’s time to look at the car Alexander will be sporting this year. With its combination of papaya and white, the livery of the No. 7 Chevy is sure to be one of the best-looking cars on the grid. 

“I absolutely love the new livery on the No. 7 car,” Alexander said. “It really does a very good job of representing the modernness of today’s papaya, but also has a bit of a classic throwback to it. I can’t wait to get it on track soon.” 

With the look now finally revealed, we can really start envisioning what 2024 will look like for Alexander and his team. There is plenty to build on from a 2023 season that saw some strong, consistent performances but also room for growth. 

“Last year had a lot of positives throughout what was a very challenging year in terms of transitioning into a new organization that was going through a pretty big expansion,” Alexander said. “Now that everything has settled down and we are all comfortable with working with each other, it is important that we maximize each other’s potential to get the best results on track.” 

Brian Barnhart, General Manager at Arrow McLaren and Car Communicator on the No. 7 car, agreed that last year’s experience gelling with the team will pay dividends this year. 

“Aside from myself, everyone Alexander worked with in 2023 was a new relationship for him,” Brian said. “We now have a year under our belt as a group and there is a better feel for how everyone operates.  While Alexander will have a new race and performance engineer, because they both were with the team last year on the No. 6 car, Alexander worked very closely with them and has had several test sessions this winter to further develop that chemistry.” 

Those tests Brian mentioned have been a crucial part of the offseason. Alexander said testing time has helped build chemistry between him and a few of the new members on his engineering crew. 

“We’ve been fortunate to have quite a number of days of testing with our role in helping the hybrid development, which has allowed me to get up to speed with the new engineering group on my car. I was very impressed with what Chris and Nigel were able to do with Felix last year, and I am very confident that we will be able to carry their strong performance at the end of last year into the start of this year.” 

Brian has worked with Alexander in previous seasons, and he provides a familiar voice to Alexander when they’re on track. According to Brian, Alexander can process a lot of information at a time, so Brian provides as much detail as possible. The two of them communicate well with each other, and they hope that relationship can serve as a template for the rest of the team. 

“Our focus is on execution and results,” Brian said. “We have to eliminate mistakes to maximize performance.  Better processes and improved communication will deliver better results.” 

Results on track are, ultimately, what the team is chasing, and the first chance to capture a quality result will come in St. Petersburg in just a few weeks. While preparation for the season-opener is in full swing, the Arrow McLaren admins will continue to solicit Alexander’s services in content creation. 

And, believe it or not, that is a role that Alexander is embracing, too. 

“You know what, it’s not as bad as I would’ve imagined,” Alexander said. “Most of the time, the content team makes it fun, so I’ll continue playing along. But, mostly because I have to."