After a catastrophic weekend in Toronto, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi is ready to bounce back at a track he’s intimately familiar with at the GP of Monterey. This is his sixth time entering Monterey and his first time racing at Laguna Seca with Ed Carpenter Racing.
Season review: Challenges amid a chaotic calendar
While the 33-year-old acknowledged that “after this stretch, points are kind of irrelevant,” both he and the team remain focused on improving. Amid the fast-paced chaos of the season, Rossi admitted to Pit Debrief and other media outlets there’s still uncertainty about what’s gone wrong. But he’s hopeful that the final four races will offer a chance to reset. The American remained optimistic that ECR can deliver strong performances in the coming weekends.
“We’re just trying to improve and make sure that we have answers to questions going into what’s a long off-season.
“It’s always one of the struggles with IndyCar. You have all of these events and it’s kind of stacked on top of each other and it’s very difficult to keep up, you know, any sort of development programme, if you will, just because it’s, you know, everyone has to be track and sight focused, no one can stay the back of the shop and that sort of thing.
“And then you get into this off-season and it’s all development focused, but then you don’t really have any opportunity to validate it on track.
“So, we’re really trying to answer some questions for some heavy-hitting topics that we know that we’re weak in and struggling on. And I think that, you know, these four races should actually be fairly good for us, with two ovals and two road courses.
“But, you know, this series or this year has been full of surprises. So, yes, to answer the question, points are not really relevant, but obviously we want to try and get some good results for the whole organisation and just the morale going into the off-season.”
First year with ECR: Surpassing expectations despite setbacks
In his first year with Ed Carpenter Racing, Rossi found the team’s performance exceeded his expectations. While execution occasionally fell short – at times due to factors beyond ECR’s control – he still considered it a successful season. Rossi was quick to put things in perspective. He noted that every team in the paddock faces similar setbacks over the course of a season. Team Penske know all about it.
“I think from a performance standpoint, I would say it’s probably honestly higher than what I was expecting. Or maybe that’s not a fair thing to say, but the performance has been good in a lot of scenarios.
“The execution on race day has been lacking. Some of that has been through elements that are completely outside of the team’s control. And we’ve unfortunately had quite a few mechanical failures this year.
“It’s the way the sport works, you know. You look at up and down the grid this year, and by no means are we alone in that category.
“There’s so many variables. And you try your best to control all of them. But sometimes that’s not possible. And sometimes it’s just a tough go for a little bit.“
While he acknowledged that there’s still plenty to improve, Rossi believed that neither his performance nor ECR’s is fundamentally in question.
“But I would say that the hardest thing to fix for any race team or driver is true performance. And I don’t feel that, you know, that’s our biggest issue. Obviously it needs to be better, and we need to make more appearances in the Firestone Fast Six. But we’ve been knocking on the door pretty much every weekend. So, that’s good, and we will try and clean things up on Sundays to finish out the year better.”
Limited development possibilities in a grueling race calendar
Looking back on his first year with ECR, Rossi admitted it’s been difficult to truly develop the car during the season. With the relentless pace of back-to-back race weekends, Indy 500 prep, and the aftermath of each event, there’s little room for meaningful progress.
“There’s not a lot of evolution that can happen – it’s kind of what you have is what you get,” explained the Auburn native. “[…] The real big step will come as we go into this off-season.”
“I don’t know that there’s huge differences. Because kind of like I said, like once you get into the season, it’s very difficult to really do much outside of, you know, focus on the track side, performance side of things.
“And really just try and put your best foot forward, whether that’s through sim days, or shaky week days, or wind tunnel days, or whatever.
“The year is kind of split up into the two categories. You know, you have pre-Indy 500 and post-Indy 500, and the post-Indy 500 run is pretty intense for everyone.”
With new ownership joining the team just under a year ago, it naturally takes time for them to understand how everything operates and begin offering meaningful input, Rossi explained.
Adjusting to new ownership
“If you look at where the new ownership group came in, there’s a big change in what Ed Carpenter Racing is.
“That’s not an overnight thing, you know. Those people need to have an understanding of what the sport is, what the sport requires to compete at the very top, and kind of identify areas that need to be tweaked and adjusted in order to get the most out of everybody. So, that’s not something that you can do, kind of, from October of having one day of tests in Indianapolis to March and having the first race.”
Short term fixes are unlikely
While he and ECR know what they’d like to focus on, Rossi acknowledged that little can change before the final races of the season.
“So I think that we’ve all made a lot of notes and had a lot of conversations about things that we need to improve in order to be better next year. But at the same time, when it’s five races in, I think, four weeks, it’s not something that you can really implement on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday going into a Thursday prep for a weekend.”
Bridging the gap to the top teams will take time
While Rossi has been encouraged by ECR’s surprisingly positive performance, he conceded that closing the gap to the front runners remained a challenge
“I think if you look at this year, you know, ultimately, there’s really one, two teams, two and a half teams now, I guess, that have been the benchmark. And everyone else is falling considerably short, and I would say that that’s not specific to the ECR. That’s specific to just in general all but those, let’s say, three teams, right? So, it’s a bit of a weird one.”
Rossi remained realistic about the effort needed to bridge the gap across several areas. Yet he was eager to see the results of that work.
“I think there’s been a lot of surprises this year in terms of just general performance or lack of results up and down the field. So, I think there’s low-hanging fruit on the operations side, on the performance side, on us as drivers to improve in the off-season. It is exciting to think about that. But it also takes a lot of effort and buy-in from everyone in order to accomplish that and start seeing the fruits of that labour.
“You know, it’s not just, oh, we need to do this, and we believe we need to do this. You actually have to do it. And, you know, there’s quite a big gap for all of us to close on those three teams this year.”
From powerhouse to smaller team: Different scale, same dedication
From the outside, switching from a powerhouse like McLaren to a smaller team like ECR might seem like a step down. However, Rossi explained that the differences between the ‘big’ teams and smaller outfits like ECR are minimal. The main distinction is that in smaller teams, fewer people take on more responsibilities. Yet the quality of work remains just as high – arguably making their efforts even more impressive.
“The scale is the biggest thing. But ultimately […] that’s what makes this series so challenging and so rewarding at the same time, all of these teams are very good. And all of the engineers and mechanics and the management, the drivers, everyone has earned a right and worked their way to get to this level of motorsport. So, I would say it’s just the amount of people. I wouldn’t say it’s really anything beyond that.
“You know, at McLaren, there’s kind of, in some departments, two people for one job sort of thing. Whereas I would say at ECR, it might be one person for two jobs, which is something that is a target of the organisation, to build strength in personnel, and to take some of the workload off the people who have been managing a lot of different departments all at once. You know, I think that’s pretty high up on the priority list.
Recruitment challenges highlight team’s commitment
Rossi also pointed out that recruiting highly skilled personnel is a challenge, further highlighting the impressive standard maintained by the team.
“But ultimately, you know, hiring people in this sport is very challenging. It’s not easy. You don’t want to hire people for the sake of hiring people either. So, it’s not just as easy to say, oh, we’re three people short in the engineering group. Let’s go hire three people. Like, that’s a very challenging thing to do […]”
Facing uncertainty at Laguna Seca amid hybrid transition
Answering a question from Pit Debrief, Rossi reflected on the uncertainty heading into this weekend. Although he finished third at Laguna Seca last year, that race was the final one held with non-hybrid engines – something he said has completely altered the dynamics. “Everything that existed last year doesn’t apply because of the hybrid,” he explained, admitting he’s unsure what results to expect this time around.
“It’s so hard in IndyCar because, especially this year, kind of everything that existed last year doesn’t really apply because of the hybrid, right? So, Laguna last year was the final race of a non-hybrid engine.
“The hybrid came on after that. But then the races that we’ve been with the hybrid, and we also had the hybrid last year, it’s a different tyre. So just because there’s a connection to past performance, it doesn’t really mean that from one year to the next, it’s all going to translate. So, I don’t really know.
“I think that ECR and the team at Christian was pretty happy with the car that he had last year. But again, that was a non-hybrid car.”
Adding to the uncertainty, Rossi noted that “the track’s gone through another year of weathering,” which will pose an additional challenge for drivers at Laguna Seca.
“So, the pavement is obviously going to be a little bit different than it was in 24, which is very different than it was in 23. So, I don’t have an answer for you.”
Hope remains despite the difficulties
Rossi confessed that this season has “been a difficult run.” Therefore, ‘[…] the team generally is very in need of a strong result for both cars.”
“Not only for a kind of a confidence boost for the whole organisation. But also it’s the team’s home race now, kind of with the Java house being the sponsor. There’s going to be a lot of eyes and a lot of opportunity to make a lot of people very happy if we can have a good weekend.”
Qualifying inconsistency leaves Rossi searching for answers
Since the Indy Road Course round, Rossi hasn’t qualified in the top 10 – a trend he admitted has left him puzzled. Responding to a question from Pit Debrief, he described the season as a series of ups and downs, marked by inconsistency and a lack of clear answers. No single factor has been identified as the root cause of their disappointing performances.
“I don’t know. I wish I had an answer for you. […] Detroit, Christian [Rasmussen] qualified in the top 10, I believe, or maybe 12, but very close. I think he was just a better car that weekend. On the ovals, the team has shown the capacity to be very strong in the races.
“Qualifying has still been a little bit of a mystery in terms of just outright speed in the car. And then really, Road America and Toronto were very challenging weekends from an overall pace standpoint for very different reasons. Those are obviously different tracks, and they have very different demands, but they were also our worst qualifyings of the year by a pretty hefty margin.
“But on that same token, Mid-Ohio was the first time in a very long time that ECR got both cars into the Fast 12. So, it’s been hit and miss. And unfortunately, if we had the answer to that, it probably wouldn’t be hit or miss.
“It would just be consistent all the way through. It’s something that we’re continually trying to identify and understand going forward.”
Final four races to build positive momentum
Despite a season of ups and downs, Rossi remained hopeful of finishing strong. He believed the final four races held real potential for ECR.
“We’re just trying to finish off the year on a high note and have some positive momentum.
“There’s a lot that has been learned. It’s again, this series in particular is hard with having so many races on top of each other coming up off of Indianapolis. If things are not fully optimised or you’re not in a super good window, there’s a lot of races that go by a short period of time.
“We are aware of some of the easy fixes and some of the harder fixes won’t come until 2026. It’s a constant evolution. And as the series gets more competitive with more and more teams having alliances with each other, it just becomes it demands excellence through and through. It’s something we’re aware of and working to resolve.
“Hopefully the last four races we can take a decent step forward and be better than we have been as of the past four weeks.”
Oval success contrasts with road and street course struggles
Rossi praised the team’s strong progress on ovals since May. He also credited teammate Rasmussen for maximizing the car’s potential, especially at Gateway. He noted both drivers share similar setups with no major performance gaps.
“No, it’s great. You know, I think the cars have been fantastic on the ovals really since May. I don’t think that was a surprise. I think Christian [Rasmussen] has really maximised the performance to the car better than I have, especially at Gateway.”
While hopeful the oval consistency can carry over to road and street courses, Rossi admitted that challenge remains. Looking ahead to Milwaukee, he expressed confidence in the team’s equipment and focus on delivering a solid race result.
“So, it’s really put us on a really solid path in terms of like the development of the car and things that we know are working versus not working. And both of us are kind of on that same road. We are driving the same car, there’s no real big offsets between us. It’s a really good thing. It’s something that you dream to achieve on the road street courses as well, which is obviously something we haven’t found yet.
“But yes, Milwaukee national, the whole organisation is super excited about. We know we’ll have good cars. So, then it just becomes a matter of making sure that you get the end result come Sunday.”
Confidence in a late-season podium push
This is Alexander Rossi’s first IndyCar season without a podium finish so far. Optimistic about the final four races, he’s confident that a podium with Ed Carpenter Racing is still within reach.
“It clearly hasn’t been a very, very smooth season. Again, it is what it is. So, we’ve got four good tracks for us I believe, especially we just talked about the two ovals. So I have a hundred percent confidence that we will be able to accomplish that and keep that streak going”.
Alexander Rossi’s debut season with Ed Carpenter Racing has been marked by a mix of promising performance and frustrating setbacks. While the packed and unpredictable calendar has limited development opportunities, Rossi remains optimistic about the team’s trajectory. With new ownership in place and a clear plan, ECR aims to build momentum in the final four races. Rossi and the team are focused on turning potential into results and finishing strong to set up a competitive 2026.
