Felix Rosenqvist Not Giving Up IndyCar Ride with Arrow McLaren SP without a Fight

• Herta heads into Iowa eighth in the NTT IndyCar Series standings, 97 points behind series leader and Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson.

• Felix Rosenqvist is ninth, 107 points behind.

• Rumors have abounded that Rosenqvist may be shifted to his team’s Formula E operation next season.

Given their podium finishes this past Sunday at Toronto, this weekend’s Saturday-Sunday doubleheader at Iowa Speedway could go a long way toward determining the fate for the remainder of the season for Toronto runner-up Colton Herta and third-place finisher Felix Rosenqvist.

While some may already be counting them out at a run for the IndyCar championship, Herta and Rosenqvist’s respective finishes at Toronto show they both have the potential for a late-season title rally.

Herta heads into Iowa eighth in the standings, 97 points behind series leader and Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, while Rosenqvist is ninth, 107 points behind.

“We really need to start racking up the podiums and wins if we want to have a shot at it,” Herta said. “We are pretty far back. … Might need a little bit of luck and a lot of good results, but we can do it.”

After earning his only win thus far this season in the Indianapolis Grand Prix, Herta fell from sixth in the standings to 11th—a 30th-place finish in the Indy 500 didn’t help matters —before rallying back to eighth after his pole and runner-up finish at Toronto.

“We just needed a good race, a clean race,” Herta said. “That's what we got. Yeah, I'm happy with P2. I think we were probably second best right there with Felix. Happy with how it went. … It’s good to kind of right the wrongs after Mid-Ohio (finished 15th in the race before Toronto despite leading seven laps) and try to continue this into Iowa.”

Rosenqvist, meanwhile, has a lot to prove—not so much to his fans, but rather Arrow McLaren SP principal Zak Brown. While Rosenqvist recently signed a multi-year contract extension with the team, there’s no guarantee he’ll be back in IndyCar for the team in 2023.

Rumors have abounded that Rosenqvist may be shifted to the team’s Formula E operation next season, paving the way for defending IndyCar Series champ Alex Palou to take over Rosenqvist’s IndyCar ride. Brown has remained non-committal on any of those possible scenarios.

“I think if Zak was sure I was going to FE, he would have already said it,” Rosenqvist said. “I'm going to take that chance. If there's a chance for me to be here next year, I'm going to try to prove I can do that.”

Sunday at Toronto was Rosenqvist’s first podium of 2022 (and first podium overall since his lone IndyCar win at Road America in 2020).

Admittedly, the odds aren’t exactly in his favor for success at Iowa: he’s made 17 starts on ovals in his 55-race IndyCar career, and has yet to earn even one podium going round and round.

Rosenqvist has an incredibly consistent track record at Iowa—but that’s both good and bad. In his three starts on the .875-mile oval, he’s been a modicum of consistency: finishing 14th in 2019 and 2020 and 15th in last season’s race there.

But sooner or later, the Swedish native is bound to break free from his oval track shackles. And if he’s going to make a move toward battling for the championship still this season, Iowa is pretty much a make-or-break weekend for him.

“I think everyone on the team was ready for at least a podium, and also a win coming up here soon hopefully,” Rosenqvist said.

On the other hand, four of the five races left after Iowa are where Rosenqvist shines, namely, road courses (Indianapolis GP again, Portland and Laguna Seca) and street courses (Nashville), along with one remaining oval (Gateway).

One thing is for sure: Rosenqvist is not giving up his IndyCar ride with Arrow McLaren SP without a fight, putting Brown on notice last weekend.

“I hope this weekend makes Zak doubt some things,” Rosenqvist said. “There’s still a long way to go in the year and every race keeps getting better and better. This is the trajectory we want to be on and I’m so excited for the rest of the season.

“I've made my point that I'm very happy with the team. I think it shows, a super group. I think we worked hard the last two years to kind of build up a very strong team. We have good strategy, good pit stops. I think I'm able to extract most out of the car most weekends now.

“Yeah, I think if you asked me end of last year, obviously it would have been a different answer. But right now I'm just very happy where I'm at. I think I would be crazy if I said I wanted to go somewhere else.

“I want to be where I'm at right now. I think Arrow McLaren SP has pretty much become a home for me. Yeah, it's up to Zak. He's the man who is making the moves. Probably going to take a couple weeks before we know more. Hopefully, (Toronto) changed something. My ambition is to keep proving it that way.”

And a win or two or podiums in each race this weekend could do just that for Rosenqvist.

Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski