INDIANAPOLIS — The scheduled portion of our ride is coming to an end, as Alexander Rossi’s papaya-orange McLaren GT approaches the Indianapolis Motor Speedway tunnel entrance.
But instead of taking a right turn to pass underneath the Turn 1/2 grandstands, Rossi continues onward.
“We’ll drive past this,” Rossi says. “Let’s at least hit an on-ramp so we can go quick in this thing for you. Otherwise, a 35-mph ride in a McLaren is pretty lame.”
We’ve just spent the last 15 minutes making the slow drive on 16th Street from downtown Indianapolis to the venerable speedway, which hosts its 107th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. Rossi, who won the 100th Indy 500, in 2016, was wrapping up a photo shoot with his Arrow McLaren teammates on the city’s Monument Circle when he met up with The Athletic for a drive-and-talk interview.
It was fitting, because McLaren had given each of their drivers a loaner for the month of May — adorned in their Indy 500 liveries, numbers and branding. Rossi has his own new McLaren at home — it was part of his contract when he signed with the team — but he’s letting his engineer use it this month.
The plan was for The Athletic to hop in the passenger seat — if we can figure out how to open these upward doors, anyway — and have Rossi drive us to the racetrack. After wrapping the photo shoot, Rossi placed his helmet bag in the front compartment (where most cars would have an engine) and put the rest of his stuff in the small trunk that sits atop the mid-engine area.
Then we were off, navigating the streets of downtown Indy with plenty of curious glances coming our way.
“We’ve really only been using these for media appearances,” he says. “At every stoplight, it feels like someone honks and wants you to roll your window down. It’s the color more than anything else.”
Rossi enjoys his life in Indianapolis, a city of which he is now a seven-year resident. That’s the longest the 31-year-old Californian has lived anywhere in his adult life since he moved to Europe as a 16-year-old to pursue Formula One and later spent five years in London.
Indy and London couldn’t be more different, of course, and Rossi has occasionally wondered if he should move to a different place than the streets he’s currently navigating. Ultimately, though, he feels at home here.
Read more about Rossi’s mindset at McLaren here.
(Photo: Sean Gardner / Getty)