This has been a crazy season for IndyCar rookies. Some have been hired, fired, hired again, one lost his seat entirely, and another managed to get a pole position and then a podium.
After 12 of 17 races and with the season set to resume its final run at Gateway this week, we have a large enough sample pool of most of these drivers to be able to judge them effectively.
So, here are our rankings of the starters so far this season, from worst to best.
We’ve excluded drivers who competed in four or fewer races to ensure we have enough data to judge them, but stay tuned until the end to learn more about one driver we couldn’t rank but who impressed.
6 Tom Blomqvist
age: 30
a team: shank
points:46 (28)
It starts:5
best start:12
best ending:15
Tom Blomqvist hasn’t had the best start to his IndyCar debut in 2023, but for someone who beat Max Verstappen in Formula 3 in 2014, we expected a stronger start this year.
Perhaps he could eventually rediscover the single-seater form he was once capable of, but the Meyer Shank Racing team couldn’t wait.
The signing of David Malukas — after the team dropped Blomqvist following his Indianapolis 500 crash — was an immediate and huge morale boost for the team, which is fighting for a spot in the top 22 in the driver’s circle that will earn it $1 million from IndyCar at the end of the year.
Blomqvist needed more time, but he was never going to get it given the form he was showing and the concern on Shank’s part about not finishing in the top 22.
He’s very good in sportscars, and he’ll certainly be on his feet there when Meyer-Schank becomes the Acura-branded Honda team next year in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
5 Kevin Simpson
age: 19
a team: Ganassi
points: 133 (twenty)
It starts:12
best start:12
best ending:12
Ultimately, there are plenty of drivers in the offseason market right now who could outperform Kevin Simpson, and the family support he has given Ganassi is what keeps him in that seat.
But this year has been better than any previous year, with his qualifying performance being very modest, but Simpson didn’t have the worst result on this list, and he leads Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen in points.
Coincidentally, Simpson was having one of his best races at Road America when his car slid off the track, and if he had continued that way it would have boosted his points standings.
How harshly we judge Simpson and the later new Ganassi driver is partly down to how good their equipment is compared to that of fellow race winners Alex Palou and Scott Dixon. Is the team overstretched? Can it provide the same level of machinery for five cars? Should we be lenient with drivers who aren’t Palou or Dixon?
Regardless of these questions, Simpson wasn’t the best in the class, but he’s not the worst rookie to have raced in IndyCar in recent years. He’s well behind many of the racers on this list in terms of age and years of racing experience.
Simpson is about six years younger than the rookie champion, so while he may not be a champion in the future, he has plenty of time to grow.
His racing skills and instinct to get to the finish line were a great start for him, as he completed the thirteenth highest number of laps this year.
4 Christian Rasmussen
age:24
a team: The carpenter
points: 109 (23)
It starts:10
best start:eighth
best ending:9
If this ranking was based solely on a driver showing incredible speed, NXT Indy Champion Christian Rasmussen would be ranked much higher.
It’s very difficult to judge the Ed Carpenter Racing driver because this year has been so full of ups and downs for his race-winning teammate Rinus VeeKay that there is no strong enough comparison, but there have been flashes of excellent potential.
Rasmussen’s poor results
Saint PetersburgA clutch problem and then a speeding ticket in the pit lane caused him to fall one lap behind. He finished the race in 20th place.
barberHe veered off the track several times before a spin and stop eventually cost him his place. He finished the race in 24th place.
Long BeachRubbing the wall and breaking the comment
Indy Road CourseA pit stop caused him to drop back. He finished the race in 20th place.
DetroitHe was running eighth when he had an engine problem.
America’s WayHe was 10th before the penalty for Simpson’s spin. He finished 20th.
TorontoI bumped into Marcus Ericsson.
Rasmussen has made a number of mistakes that have put him behind the McLaren drivers on this list, but Rasmussen is certainly dealing with a lower setup than any of his rivals here, so he has done a good job. He is second among the drivers on this list, and he has been denied a higher position as well.
A 12th-place finish in the Indy 500 was a notable achievement for him, and races like Detroit where he finished eighth before an engine problem would have boosted his chances of competing for the rookie championship.
It was a bit tough, but Rasmussen showed he has what it takes to race at this level.
3 Nolan Siegel
age: 19
the difference: Quinn, Juncos, McLaren
points:88 (25)
It starts:7
best start:11
best ending:12
Nolan Siegel has had a great 2024. It started with five scheduled starts for Dale Coyne Racing, but Siegel ended up securing a McLaren seat and posting decent numbers in that car during his time there.
His Indy 500 seemed like a blot on history as he failed to qualify after crashing in practice. Quinn’s car was clearly bad, but his teammate Catherine Legge handled it well.
But regardless, Siegel is the best driver on this list in oval racing this season after a strong weekend in Iowa.
By comparison, his average road and street performance isn’t great, but there’s no indication that this driver isn’t up to the task, or that he won’t improve significantly with age and experience.
2 Theo Bourchier
age: 20
a team: McLaren
points: 91 (24)
It starts:6
best startSeventh:
best ending:tenth
I tried not to let feeling sorry for Theo Bourchier for not getting a seat for the rest of the year tempt me to rank him too highly.
In average finishes and points per start, he leads rookies with five or more races, including an 11th-place finish at Long Beach when he had never driven the car before and a 14th-place finish at Toronto after traveling 4,000 miles overnight to get in the car to qualify at a track he had never driven before, even in the simulator.
Whether Borscheid can find the next step with better preparation and more time in the car is another question, but in terms of what he did and the conditions in which he did it, it was very impressive.
His qualifying wasn’t always the best, but he showed up and brought a clean car on race day.
1 Linus Lundqvist
age: 25
a team: Ganassi
points: 173 (18)
It starts:12
best start:1st
best endingThird:
Where do we start Linus Lundqvist’s season?
It looks like he could be out of a seat at Ganassi next year and struggling to find a seat elsewhere with the drivers on the market, but it would be a disaster if he was off the grid in 2025.
Lundqvist’s poor results
Saint PetersburgRomain Grosjean was out of the race in 12th place.
Indy GPI didn’t get enough fuel at the pit stop. I finished the race in 24th place.
Indy 500I went out at the first corner on the first lap.
DetroitI had several accidents. I finished the race in 22nd place.
Iowa’s first raceMechanical problem
His best start was a pole position at Road America, and the next driver on the list can only boast a seventh place on the grid. He also had a podium finish, and the next driver on the list had a best finish of ninth.
The only real question is whether he has given the most this car and team can give.
There have been mistakes, but anyone who doesn’t think Lundqvist deserves another shot at IndyCar needs to look at his form closely.
The wild card that will be in the lead
Toby Sowery has only started two races in IndyCar, so it doesn’t feel like we have a huge data set, but getting into the worst-performing team in 2024 and finishing 13th and 15th is certainly no mean feat.
Which makes you wonder: did Quinn’s team make good choices with their driver line-up earlier in the season, and were these the results they were able to achieve throughout?
Of course, two races isn’t a large enough sample to tell. But Sweery had only tested with one other IndyCar team, with Rahal last year at Sebring, before taking over with Quinn at Mid-Ohio.
Luca Ghiotto drove that car earlier in the year and had better He finished 21st, and is a very skilled driver.
With only one race left on the road, Sowery may not have enough chance to prove he is worthy of a permanent seat next year unless it is with Quinn. Also, Sowery is one of the drivers in the market who cannot afford a huge budget.
But his performance was undoubtedly eye-catching, especially given how important his single-seater career was, and a reminder of the strong impression the now 28-year-old made on the UK junior ranks in the mid-2000s.
