Reigning Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire finds himself in an award situation right now, as he is currently without a drive for next season.
Finlay McSporran
Published: 14:51, 13th August 2024
It’s been a rollercoaster of a year for the Frenchman so far, having competed in IndyCar and Super Formula, with no mention of a F1 drive for next season despite his talent.
This all began at end of last year, when Pourchaire won the F2 championship at the final round in Abu Dhabi. However, unlike other champions in the past such as Charles Leclerc, George Russel and Oscar Piastry, Pourchaire wouldn’t be heading to Formula one next year, despite being a Sauber backed driver. With both Sauber Drivers locked in for 2024 Pourchaire had to settle for a test and reserve role at the team instead.
As well as this, it was announced that he would be competing in the Super Formula series in Japan, the same series that fellow F2 driver Liam Lawson competed in last year, a driver who is now heavily linked with a F1 seat at VCARB.
Unlike Lawson however, who finished 2nd in his first season, Pourchaire would struggle to adapt to his new surroundings, finishing 18th in first race at Suzuka after starting 16th. What made matters even worse was that fellow F2 driver and Super Formula rookie Ayumu Iwasa finished 9th in the same race, finishing in the points on debut.
This was a disaster for Pourchaire, as he needed to perform in this series to show Sauber that he’s worthy of a drive in F1. Thankfully for him, he was thrown a life-line before the second round.
Over in America, it was announced that McLaren IndyCar driver David Malukas would not be competing for the team after he fractured his wrist in a mountain bike incident, and that the team had terminated his contract for the remainder of the season.
It was also announced that Theo Pourchaire would drive in his spot at the next round in Long Beech.
Given the disappointing start he had, Pourchaire would sit out the remainder of the Super Formula series in order to focus entirely on his new career in Indycar.
He would qualify 22nd for his first IndyCar race, however a great drive on Sunday saw him climb up to 11th on debut, earning the award for biggest mover.
This performance was good enough for McLaren to keep him on for the next race in Alabama where he would put in another good performance, finishing ahead of his teammates, Alex Rossi and Pato O’ward.
Pourchaire continued racing with McLaren for the next few races, impressing the team with his performances which earned himself a seat for the remainder of the season.
However, just 5 races into his IndyCar career McLaren announced that it had signed Indy NXT driver and Le Man winner Nolen Segal on a multi-year contract, replacing Pourchaire at the next round at Laguna Seca.
This bizarre move from McLaren left Pourchaire without seat once again, this time in the middle of the season.
McLaren’s merry-go-round of drivers would prove to be both a blessing and a curse for him, but there was yet another twist in this saga, as Alex Rossi broke his thumb during Friday practice for round 13 in Toronto, with McLaren deciding to bring back Pourchaire for that race after dropping him mid-season.
With the weekend already underway, Pourchaire had to fly out to Toronto, with almost no sleep and hop into the car for the first time in over 6 weeks, and head straight into qualifying on a track that he’d never driven on.
Understandably, he could only manage 26th, meaning that he would be lining up on the last row for the race on Sunday.
Pourchaire had a decent drive, moving up to 14th by the flag, in a race where many drivers crashed out including his teammates, meaning that he finished as the highest placed McLaren despite not participating in practice!
That brings us to today, where Theo is once again without a drive as Rossi has been cleared by IndyCar’s medical team and will be back in the car for this weekends race in Illinois.
So what’s next for the 20 year-old? Well there’s still a seat left at Sauber and as the teams test and reserve driver he’s surely one of the favourites for it. However he’s up against drivers like Bottas, Lawson and F2 driver Gabrielle Bortoleto, who have all been linked with the seat for 2025.
If he doesn’t get the F1 drive then there are always other options such as Formula E, WEC or even a return to Super Formula. But the most likely option for him as a return to IndyCar, this time with a different team.
Prema’s new IndyCar team for 2025 could be an option for him, but with little seats available and plenty of other drivers on the market there’s no guarantee that he’ll be racing in the states next year, despite the talent that he’s shown.
From the winning the F2 championship in November, to now being jobless just 9 months later, Pourchaire’s story highlights how cruel motorsports can be at times. Hopefully for his sake, he can find a drive next year that allows him to show his talent that we saw during his time racing in F2 and F3.
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