Dennis Hauger has had a dream start to the 2025 Indy NXT season, taking three out of four wins in the opening rounds.
The Norwegian spent the majority of his racing career in the European Racing ladder. Climbing through the ranks from Karting, F4 to F3 and then finally F2. He won the Formula 3 championship back in 2021, as well as taking out the Italian F4 championship in 2019.
Despite only being a step away from Formula 1, Hauger was unable to make the jump into a coveted seat. Even after winning the F3 championship, Hauger felt as though the opportunities in European racing were fleeting.
At the end of the Norwegian’s third season in Formula 2, he announced his move to the States to compete in the F2 equivalent of the IndyCar ladder — Indy NXT.
Starting off strong
From the start, Hauger made his intentions in the series clear, aiming for the championship and then a seat in IndyCar. So far, his campaign has started off near perfectly, leading the championship with a 15 point gap to his teammate Lochie Hughes.
When talking exclusively to Pit Debrief, he admitted that his driving style fitting into the nature of the Indy NXT car’s helping him quickly get up to speed in the series.
“To be honest, just the balance and the driving style of the car suits me quite well. It feels natural, and it felt natural since day one. And then sort of just built it up from there in testing, especially.
“So yeah, definitely a good start to the season. I’ve got to thank Andretti for getting me up to speed quickly on that part. But yeah, still a long season ahead, a lot of races to fight for points.”
A competitive team
As a team, Andretti have shown themselves to be a force to be reckoned with coming into the 2025 Indy NXT season. While Hauger leads the championship, Lochie Hughes is close behind, chasing him down for the top spot.
However, while Hauger said having the field chasing him down pushed him forward, he believes his performance was more of a benefit to his teammates.
Saying, “I feel like, actually, probably my teammates get the bigger advantage when I’m first in practice, and they get my data to sort of see where they need to improve.”
“But for sure, having a teammate pushing you along the season is important to keep the team also on top of things and everyone sort of pushing forward. So we’re the team to beat, I think that’s important.”
The most recent weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the first bump in the road for Dennis Hauger in the category. Contact on the opening lap dropped him to the back, meaning the rest of his race was one of damage limitation.
When it came to race 2, Hauger turned the performance around, taking his third win in the series. Hauger praised his team on the number 28 car for the turnaround they managed after a difficult Friday. Although he recovered to P8 in the first race, car balance looked quite tricky.
“Indy GP was probably not the best day on that Friday for us on the 28 crew, but we sort of figured it out for the second day and got back to where we have been so far this year.”
Europe vs the United States
Formula 2 and the feeder series in Europe have huge difference in cars, leading to big differences with Indy NXT. Pit Debrief asked Hauger about them.
“The Indy NXT car is a lot lighter than the F2 car, which makes the driving style just quite different. The tyres are different. You can push a lot more through the race and the build up for qualifying is a bit different.
“So it’s just a mindset of how you maximise the performance throughout the weekend. But it’s honestly felt pretty natural.”
What has been the toughest thing to adapt to
But the driving style isn’t the only difference for the Norwegian. He confessed the rule changes from Europe to the United States have been a separate thing to adjust to, with qualifying remaining his biggest challenge.
Nonetheless he has adapted well, qualifying P1 at St. Pete and Barber, with front row starts for both Indy events.
“You’ve got rolling start, you got push to pass instead of DRS. So it’s sort of the small things you probably don’t think about too much, but you really have to make it automatic in your head to try to optimise it.”l
“I think qualifying has probably been the main thing. In F2, you have that one or two laps where it’s at the peak, while here you need to build it up a bit differently.
“So to find the sweet spot for me there has been a key point, I think, so far this year.”
Even within the street courses which Hauger saw in Europe, there are many races are completely different to what he is used to.
Hauger singled out, Detroit, which is known for its bumpy surface. That race takes place the week after the Indy 500.
“But also, obviously, there are a few street courses that look crazy. We have got Detroit. It’s looking so bumpy. We don’t have that in Europe, for sure.”
Ovals
Notably, one of the biggest characteristics that Hauger is yet to face is ovals. Known for being completely different to anything the Norwegian has dealt with before.
Hauger admitted that preparation for the first oval of the season is in full swing after doing a test at Nashville, and it is something he’s looking forward to in his career in the States.
“I don’t know how prepared I feel for them. I feel like I’ve done my preparation as I have on any other track. But just learning how people race, how it’s about building the momentum throughout the race to get by and not lose positions.
“It’s a bit of a different style of racing on those ovals. So I feel like qualifying, pure speed, came up quite quickly on that test day. But the racing is another thing. So we will see. I don’t really have any reference as I’ve never done a race on ovals before.”
But Hauger is aiming to keep a level head and has been focusing on the excitement of getting to experience another ‘first’ in his motorsport career.
“But I’m looking forward to it. It’s always cool with new challenges. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Pirelli vs Firestone
One of the highest praised areas from European drivers that have moved over to racing in the States has been the switch from Pirelli to Firestone tyres.
Hauger noted that in F2 and F3 he was used to managing his tyres and focusing heavily on degradation throughout the races, whereas that hasn’t been an issue when it comes to the Firestones for the most part.
“The Firestone tyres are a bit harder. Like, yeah, just the compound is a bit harder. It’s a bit more robust, if that’s a word to use. You can just push through the race a lot more.
“Like the Indianapolis GP, the road course we had last week, we had to manage it a bit, especially the rear tyres. But I think that’s one of the tracks where we had to manage the most.
“And if that’s the worst it’s going to get, I’m going to have an enjoyable season, I think, compared to the Pirelli’s in that sense.”
More European-based drivers making the move
In recent years, there has been a significant uptake in European-based drivers looking for a spot in IndyCar. The likes of Marcus Armstrong, Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman are just some of the more recent additions to the IndyCar grid.
Indy NXT is no different, with Hauger joining the likes of Sophia Flörsch, Caio Collet and at the Indy GP, Juan Manuel Correa. Hauger admitted it was nice to see the growing interest in the series’ and the familiar faces from his karting days, or his F2/F3 career.
“It’s so cool to see some drivers coming over from Europe. We had Sophia Flörsch even at the beginning of the season, and now Correa is also coming over for most of the races this year.”
“So it’s cool to see the series is just, it keeps building up. Keeps getting bigger. And I think that also shows that the interest is growing and getting more and more interesting for the drivers as well, up the ladders here.”
Season expectations
Hauger has quickly solidified himself as the driver to beat in this year’s Indy NXT campaign. Going as far as being dubbed by FOX as the ‘Norwegian nightmare’ a nickname that the 22-year-old is relishing in.
“That’s where you want to be. You want to be the guy everyone wants to beat. And so I don’t mind that.
“Obviously, if it’s not going so well at some points, it’s probably not the best nickname, the Norwegian Nightmare. But yeah, when you’re winning, and you see everyone sort of chasing you, I think that’s a good sign. So hopefully we can keep that up throughout the season.”
While the good results have not been sparse for Hauger, making the best of the difficult days are going to necessary for his season and titles hopes.
“I think those days are going to be one of the most important ones for the championship. Because I think everyone is going to have a bad race or a bad weekend, maybe.
“So to have a damaged limitation race where you come from the back and you manage to go up to P8 [is vital]. I think in the end that’s what kept me on the top of the championship this weekend and so far this season.”
Consistency is key
He noted how significant consistency is in such a competitive series, saying: “We can have many wins. But if we don’t quite get that consistency overall, we’re still in a weak spot.”
The Norwegian similarly praised the competitiveness around the Indy NXT paddock and the level of the top five to top ten drivers versus who he raced in F2 and F3.
“I definitely feel like the top five, top eight in Indy NXT is really high.”
He highlighted the competitiveness when you see the top level European-based drivers coming over to Indy NXT, and struggling to fight at the front.
“When you see people who have also been really high up in Europe not even making it to the top five or top ten in Indy NXT, it also shows that the level is high and it proves it. So that’s cool to see.”
