McLaren has brought Theo Pourchaire back into its fold one month after it dropped him from its IndyCar line-up to stand in for the injured Alexander Rossi in Toronto.
Reigning Formula 2 champion Pourchaire was given the McLaren drive for the remainder of the 2024 season in May, in place of the injured David Malukas, but was then unceremoniously dropped to make way for rookie Nolan Siegel ahead of the Laguna Seca weekend.
But he will be back at the wheel of one of the team's cars this weekend as Rossi broke his thumb in a crash in first practice on Friday on the Toronto street circuit and was subsequently ruled out of the remainder of the weekend.
McLaren said that Pourchaire will arrive in Toronto "ahead of the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon" and will miss the second practice session as he is travelling from Europe to make this stand-in appearance.
The team added that Rossi "has returned to Indianapolis to begin his treatment and the team wishes him a quick recovery".
This stand-in appointment pitches Pourchaire, who scored a top-10 finish in Detroit while in the team's #6 car, directly against replacement Siegel - whose best results since taking over from Pourchaire are a pair of 12th places, one in the first part of the Iowa double-header last weekend and another in a topsy-turvy maiden McLaren outing at Laguna Seca.
Pourchaire vs Siegel
Jack Benyon
Siegel hadn't won a championship in his junior career before McLaren signed him, with team principal Gavin Ward saying the move “set ourselves up for long-term competitiveness”, despite Pourchaire being only 15 months older than Siegel.
This has led to questions over whether Siegel is bringing budget or sponsorship to the team. Ward has not dismissed this when asked about it, but he did say Siegel's credentials were worthy.
Siegel has performed roughly as expected so far, hovering around the top 15 on pace and capitalising on others mistakes in races. He hasn't shown the flashes of pace his team-mates do yet but is early on in his progression.
Ultimately, it's too soon to say if McLaren made the wrong decision in signing Siegel over Pourchaire. But if Pourchaire is strong this weekend, bringing him back may be stoking the fire of the Pourchaire vs Siegel storyline - which had just begun to settle.
Pourchaire is on the radar for multiple IndyCar teams, but if signing him would require buying him out of a Sauber contract that might work to his detriment because there are more strong free agent drivers than there are available seats for 2025.
He is also an outside option for a Formula 1 seat with Sauber, which has backed him for several years including during his title-winning F2 campaign, though he appears to be a last resort for its vacancy alongside Nico Hulkenberg.
Statement : pic.twitter.com/gpJtajMfgO
— Théo Pourchaire (@TPourchaire) July 18, 2024
His McLaren reconciliation comes mere days after Pourchaire released a statement criticising an article in French publication AutoHebdo - that purportedly quoted him as being heavily critical of McLaren's decision to drop him in the first place.
