Frustrated with his first winless season since 2021, Marcus Ericsson has turned inwards to get back to where he wants to be in the NTT IndyCar Series.
The Swede was a front-running driver at Chip Ganassi Racing, taking a pair of victories in his first year with the team, adding two more wins in 2022, including the Indianapolis 500, and one more in 2023 before signing with Andretti Global. Those three straight runs to sixth in the championship with Ganassi didn’t transfer in the move to join Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood at Andretti.
If one of their drivers experienced misfortune in a race, it was usually Ericsson in the No. 28 Honda, and despite earning a podium at Detroit and three other top five results, there wasn’t much to show for 2024 as he placed a distant 15th in the standings. Driven by everything that didn’t live up to expectations, the six-year IndyCar veteran is pushing himself to new heights during the offseason to get back to where he wants to be when the new season gets under way.
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“When we have the longest offseason in the history of offseasons, I might as well do something with it,” Ericsson told RACER. “The cars, they don’t get easier to drive with the hybrid, and the weight of the car going up, it’s definitely a handful in there. I’ve added 10 pounds of muscle, so it’s pretty significant for me. I started on that during the season, but I’ve been working really hard since the end of the season.
“From a year ago, I’m up 10 pounds, basically. I have this mentality that I don’t really believe in bad luck. I believe in preparing yourself to succeed. And for me, that’s working hard and working hard in all different areas. This is a way of putting the work in, and I think it goes hand in hand with the metal side as well, and being disciplined. I’ve been together with my mental trainer, just trying to put up a plan on getting better every day, every week and make sure when I get to St. Pete, I’m ready to kick some ass.”
Ericsson is using the forgettable season with Andretti — and the move into the second year of his two-year contract — as motivation to fuel his offseason preparation.
“It has a lot to do with it,” he said. “Sometimes you need to get beaten down a little bit to reach new heights. And this year was a bit like that. It obviously didn’t go the way I wanted or the way it should have gone, results-wise. But it’s about how you respond to that that makes you who we are as a driver and a person, really. Not that I didn’t work hard before, but it’s giving me that extra push to really show for myself mainly, but everyone else as well, that I can perform and win races.
“And this year, I didn’t win a race for the first time in a few years, and that sucks. I’m pissed off about that, and I want to be back in the victory lane and fighting up front. And that’s not going to happen just by sitting around and being like, ‘Oh, I wish I could be better next year.’ It comes from working hard and working on all areas to be better, and that’s what I’m trying to do. So it’s been fun. When you feel like you’re physically strong, it helps you to be more mentally strong as well, and vice versa. I’m excited for what’s to come.”