IndyCar Wrap-Up: Arrow McLaren SP's 2020 Season

The 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season has finally finished, and we can now start reviewing what was an extended and exhausting season. Typically, we start our reviews at the bottom of the IndyCar championship and end with the championship winners, but instead, we are starting with the team that wants the most attention. That is Arrow McLaren SP. So here you go AMSP, you get to be first.

After a longer wait, Patricio O'Ward's first full IndyCar season was stout

Patricio O'Ward

After a pair of part-time seasons, O'Ward got his first full-time run and he was fantastic. He was runner-up in three races and picked up his first career pole position. He had the fourth most laps led in IndyCar this season and he picked up the team's best championship finish in seven years.

What objectively was his best race?
A runner-up finish from pole position in the second Road America, another runner-up finish in the second Gateway race and O'Ward ended his first full season in IndyCar with a runner-up finish at St. Petersburg.

What subjectively was his best race?

The first two runner-up finishes stand out for O'Ward, but I think the Road America race edges out on top because it looked like he was set to get his first career victory and it took a flawless final stint from Felix Rosenqvist to take that victory away from him. Rosenqvist had the better tires and O'Ward didn't have the pace down the stretch. 

Frankly, O'Ward's third place finish in the first Gateway race was better than his runner-up finish in the second Gateway race. In that Saturday race, O'Ward led 94 laps, the most on the day and was beat when Scott Dixon had a slightly better pit stop. The only reason why O'Ward wasn't second was a daring pass from Takuma Sato on the outside entering turn one. 

What objectively was his worst race?
The first Harvest Grand Prix race, where he ended up 22nd and one-lap down. 

What subjectively was his worst race?

That Harvest Grand Prix race is the only blemish on his season, but the second Iowa race deserves some recognition, because O'Ward was looking at a podium finish before a slow pit stop cost him. He spent most of that race near eventually race winner Josef Newgarden despite starting 12th. I still believe Newgarden wins that race even if O'Ward has his best pit stop of the season, but he sacrificed being in the position to pounce in case Newgarden slipped up with one poor pit stop.

Patricio O'Ward's 2020 Statistics
Championship Position: 4th (416 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 4
Top Fives: 6
Top Tens: 10
Laps Led: 204
Poles: 1
Fast Sixes: 1
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 10.412
Average Finish: 7.571 

Things took a turn in the wrong direction for Oliver Askew midseason

Oliver Askew

The year started well for the 2019 Indy Lights champion and Askew picked up his first career podium finish in his fifth career start. He had three top ten finishes in his first six starts. However, he did not have a top ten finish in his final six starts of the season with an accident in the Indianapolis 500 taking him out of the car for two races due to concussion-like symptoms. After that accident, the relationship with AMSP soured and Askew's tenure with the organization will end after one season.

What objectively was his best race?
A third-place finish in the first Iowa race. 

What subjectively was his best race?

The first three oval races deserve a mention for Askew. 

He started the season with a strong run from 20th to ninth at Texas and he was the top rookie on the night, even ahead of his teammate O'Ward. 

Then you had the first Iowa race, where he drove into the top ten and then back into the top five after pitting on the wrong side of the caution for Will Power's accident. He drove up to third after being caught behind the eight-ball. We have seen this before in IndyCar and Josef Newgarden did something similar at Milwaukee in 2014. A drive like that isn't a fluke.  

The second Iowa race, Askew was again competitive. He led ten laps before the final caution caught him out and he had yet to make his final pit stop. He lost some ground but made some passes late to get up to sixth. 

What objectively was his worst race?
His accident on lap 92 of the Indianapolis 500 dropped him to a 30th-place finish.

What subjectively was his worst race?

There is only one correct answer and it is the Indianapolis 500 because of the concussion-like symptoms that led to him stepping out of the car for the Harvest Grand Prix weekend and then led to his dismal from the team. 

Prior to that accident, Askew had led four laps, he spent 33 laps in the top five and his average running position was 15.153 in his Indianapolis 500 debut.

St. Petersburg deserves a mention, because he knew it was his final race with AMSP, he was in the top ten for almost the entire race and then one incident in turn ten ended the hopes of a good finish to the season, a good finish that Askew needed.

Oliver Askew's 2020 Statistics
Championship Position: 19th (195 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Top Fives: 1
Top Tens: 3
Laps Led: 14
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 2
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 15.0
Average Finish: 15.916

An Early Look Ahead

Let's hold off on next year for a second, because Arrow McLaren SP has established a reputation not being a driver friendly team. 

Last year, James Hinchcliffe was hung out to dry when he had a year left on his contract in a multifaceted conflict between the team and Hinchcliffe. First, Arrow was upset about Hinchcliffe's appearance in ESPN The Magazine's Body Issue and wanted him removed from the team. Second, the team switched to Chevrolet, but would not release Hinchcliffe and was set to make him sit on the sidelines for the entire 2020 season, before finally releasing him when the music had stopped, and all the full-time rides were taken. 

This year, it was Askew's release on the heels of his concussion-like symptoms, and a conflict over the driver's health and well-being. Askew did not feel 100% comfortable saying he had to step out of the car, knowing it would hurt his employment status. 

A big shift must have happened that the team decided after 11 races Askew was no longer in the plans for 2021, especially if Askew made four starts while not in the right headspace after his Indianapolis 500 accident. 

Let's clear the air about Askew before the narrative is driven that he was not up to snuff...

Prior to the Indianapolis 500, he was 12th in the championship on 115 points, the top rookie and ahead of Conor Daly, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Jack Harvey, Takuma Sato, Charlie Kimball, Zach Veach and Marco Andretti. He had finished ahead of O'Ward in three of those first six races. Then Askew had his accident and the results took a nosedive.

Askew has room for improvement. His only top ten starts were fifth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and tenth at St. Petersburg. The only times he qualified ahead of O'Ward were the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the second Mid-Ohio race, when O'Ward spun and brought out a red flag and had to start at the rear of the field. O'Ward was in the top ten of the championship from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis onward and he was in the top five from the second Road America race onward. 

O'Ward was the better driver, but Askew was not a liability on the racetrack. We have seen worse drivers on track this season. Askew is 12 starts into his IndyCar career. He is just getting started and what we saw from Askew is unlikely to be all he has as a driver. 

Does anyone remember Josef Newgarden's rookie year? What about Dario Franchitti's or Hélio Castroneves' or Takuma Sato's? All four of those drivers struggled, had plenty of retirements and only Castroneves picked up a top five as a rookie, a second at Milwaukee. All four of them have gone on to win championships and Indianapolis 500s. If they were all given as short a leash as Askew, IndyCar history would look a lot different. 

AMSP is chewing through drivers very quickly. O'Ward has signed an extension and that is rightfully earned. He had a great year, one the AMSP organization has been looking for quite sometime. Though AMSP's youth experiment did come off as a success, the team gave up on Askew before the 2020 season concluded. 

Out of the blue, the team found its new driver for 2021: Felix Rosenqvist. When it was long believed AMSP would search out a veteran or even make a splash and bring the likes of Sergio Pérez into the series, the team took an IndyCar sophomore, fresh off his first career victory but who saw a dip in results. I still believe Rosenqvist has potential, if in the right environment. Nothing suggests AMSP is the nurturing environment that will allow a driver to make a mistake or two and develop.

Hiring Rosenqvist is really irrelevant, because the story is not about the drivers and results. The story is about a team waiting for a driver to make one misstep to cut line and send them sinking to the bottom of the ocean and no one will be surprised when O'Ward or Rosenqvist is cut loose. Let's not forget the team still has Robert Wickens on the books. That will likely end with Wickens being dropped at some point and it will not be a pretty look. Unpopular decisions have become AMSP's M.O.

This team has been shooting to become one of the "Big Four" teams in IndyCar with Penske, Ganassi and Andretti the last few seasons. While O'Ward did crack the top five in the championship, AMSP again did not pick up a victory and the overall results are coming up short of a "Big Four" level. Meanwhile, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing won the Indianapolis 500, won a race for a sixth consecutive season and had both cars finish in the top ten of the championship after being regular top five and top ten finishers this season. Forget making it into the "Big Four." AMSP is fighting for fifth, and there is at least one other team that has a greater claim to fifth than AMSP. 

AMSP wants attention, and it is getting it, for better or worse, but that attention is not for victories and mixing it up with the three pillars of 21st century IndyCar. It is again for thin-skinned management sending another driver to the curb for what we all know is not purely on-track results. We anticipate the knee-jerk reaction in a year's time and soon we will not blame drivers if they start avoiding the organization entirely.