The unveiling today of Marcus Ericsson’s silver visage on the legendary Borg-Warner Trophy was the final gleaming proof that this quiet man from Kumla, Sweden, has fixed his place in IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 history. The years of frustration driving tail-end Formula 1 cars to midfield finishes – mixed with occasional spasms of excitement at (gasp!) nailing a Top 10 finish – are a distant memory. He’s now in a top car and capable of delivering top results.
The quiet elation we saw from Ericsson after his first two IndyCar wins at Detroit and Nashville in 2021 more than matched what we saw from him after his Formula 2 (at that time called GP2) victories at Spa in 2012 and Nurburgring in ’13. But of course, the result on May 29 this year was on a different level and so, too, was the magnitude of the post-race celebration. And yet despite those iconic photos of milk drenching his cap and splashing his Huski Chocolate firesuit, an air of bemusement seemed to suppress him a tad.
The contrast with his predecessor as Indy 500 champion, Helio Castroneves, was stark for the ageless Brazilian reveled in being catapulted to prominence once more and climbed the fence to implore the IMS spectators to celebrate with him. He thrives in the spotlight and reflects it to a dazzling degree. Marcus seemed more dazzled by the spotlight, a shy guy who couldn’t quite comprehend the level of attention he was receiving after the race.
That said, Ericsson was wonderfully happy and deservedly satisfied by his day’s work, and the following morning was able to relive with clarity the crucial moments of the race. But then the schedule of obligations for an Indy 500 winner restricted ME’s me-time and kept him on his toes with interviews, photoshoots, studio visits, meet-n-greets, banquets… And just a couple of days after that, he was strapping into his milk-scented #8 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda and hitting the track at Belle Isle for the next round of the NTT IndyCar Series. The necessary focus on the championship battle thereafter meant that Ericsson’s memories of Memorial Day Weekend 2022 were restricted to just a series of occasional mental snapshots. Little wonder that he told us last month that it’s only since the season ended that he’s been able to truly savor his career-defining race.
That done, he’ll now appreciate the fact that, thanks to BorgWarner Inc., Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar, the Ganassi team and his fans here in the U.S. and in Sweden, there will be regular reminders of his status. The posing for the Borg-Warner Trophy sculptor William Behrends, the unveiling of the image, the trip with the trophy to Sweden, the unveiling of the 2023 Indy 500 ticket design with his image on it, the receiving of the Baby Borg, the pre-race public drivers’ meeting on the eve of next year’s 500… They say a racer is only as good as his last race, and that’s somewhat true. But an Indy 500 winner comes e eventually to realize that he retains his status forever.
Another person who will always be happy to relive last May is Ericsson’s race engineer, Brad Goldberg, a man who is well known for maximizing the potential of a sensitive driver or one who perhaps needs his confidence rebuilt. When he was dumped by what was then known as Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsport (now Arrow McLaren SP) at the end of 2019, Ericsson looked as psychologically beaten as when he lost his F1 ride a year earlier. But with Goldberg’s careful nurturing in the environs of the Ganassi race team – a place where collective pride takes precedence over individual egos – Ericsson slowly blossomed. I was by no means the only media member who rejoiced as much for the race engineer as for the driver when the #8 passed the twin checkers in May. Both Marcus and Brad are thoughtful, empathetic and eloquent… and so damn nice that being cold toward them would feel like neglecting a couple of Labrador puppies.
It is, therefore, a pleasure to catch up with Goldberg in the off-season and recall that magical couple of weeks in May. As a quick recap, the five Ganassi-Honda drivers – Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Ericsson, Tony Kanaan and Indy 500 rookie Jimmie Johnson – qualified 1-2-5-6-12 which certainly demonstrated their outright pace in qualifying trim. But more significant by far was the team’s form throughout practice, both before and after qualifying. Those end-of-session lap speeds can be misleading, but when one team always seems to have at least one car – often two – in the top three by checkered flag’s fall, it would be foolish to dismiss the trend as mere coincidence.
And in fact, the speed charts faithfully reflected what we were seeing on track. The Ganassi quintet looked ominously strong when working together or when individually working their way through a pack of rivals. They could hang tough and close in the dirty air of the car in front, even through the turns, and that left them in prime position to slingshot past on the straights. Goldberg tells Motorsport.com that throughout the Month of May, Ericsson played a crucial role in the team’s form as a whole.
“From the moment Marcus came from Formula 1 to IndyCar, he’s really taken to the ovals,” he says, “and had a strong ability to learn quick. Even in 2020 when he first joined us, he was already contributing and pushing the program, and so in 2022 there were a lot of things he could bring forth that benefited the whole team. We had excellent cars again this year, you’re right, but after qualifying there was a change we made across all five cars that was solely based on something that Marcus was looking for and made them even better.
“One of the things he did very well at Indy this year was that whenever there was a pack on the track in practice, he’d jump right in and get after it, learn all he could know about running in dirty air. That feedback was invaluable. But the beauty of the program was that we had five incredibly talented drivers contributing massive amounts, day in, day out, dividing and conquering the test plan, pushing for a common goal and unselfishly providing all the feedback they could. That’s hugely important in an era when we have far less time on track in May than we had 10 or 20 years ago. So Marcus played a massive part in the success of the entire program.”
Ericsson was not annoyed that Dixon and Palou took the first two spots on the grid, while he was ‘only’ fifth, because according to Goldberg, his man was already in a race mode mindset.
“For sure, we wanted to be on the front row with our teammates,” he says, “but the goal is to win the race, so as soon as qualifying was over, we noted that there was room for improvement, filed that in the folder for next year, but immediately we reverted back to thinking about race setup. Qualifying fifth means middle of the second row at Indy, so we’re still up front, still looking pretty good. As long as someone on our team got pole, honestly we were fine about it.”
Goldberg adds, too, that Ericsson’s podium finish in the first oval race of the year, at Texas Motor Speedway, had done more than boost his driver’s confidence: it was technically helpful despite the vastly different natures of TMS and IMS and elevated the whole team’s anticipation for the Month of May.
“We found some things at Texas that suited Marcus and helped set us up for Indy, in terms of the feeling of the car, and what he’d be looking for at Indy to allow him to extract everything he could,” he says. “But that third place was a momentum-building result, not just for Marcus but for the whole team, particularly the #8 side of the team. It was a confidence booster for me, for the tire-changers, the refueler, the spotter, everyone really.”
Their optimism was not misplaced. Ericsson looked rock solid through the first two-thirds of the Indy 500, and aside from a minor snafu with teammate Johnson on pitlane that dropped him temporarily to eighth, car #8 looked comfortable running in the top five or six. Up front, Dixon and Palou did the majority of the leading, but they never pulled too far clear of their pursuers, and eventually they were taken out of the running by penalties. Palou, who had led 47 laps, was serviced while the pits were closed during a caution period well before half-distance, which meant he had to take the next restart from the back of the field. Dixon had looked the most likely winner, regardless of Palou’s misfortune, and led 95 laps, but he then transgressed the pitlane speed limit by 1mph on his final scheduled stop and so had to serve a drive-through penalty.
But fortunately for Ganassi, Ericsson was ready to take up the role of team spearhead, after keeping his ultimate potential under wraps to this point.
“You never know how much your driver has in reserve,” says Goldberg, “but I knew he had something, because he was completely calm in the car in those early stints. We were talking like you and I are now – no stress in his voice whatsoever. We wanted to be right at the front, working with Scott and Alex [Palou], but in the past two 500s, we struggled to get past the first two stints: in 2020 we crashed, in ’21 we had the fuel issue like Scott, [Alexander] Rossi and others. So the mission at the start of this one was to not jeopardize anything.
“In the first 130 or 140 laps, if you’re fifth-sixth-seventh in line, you’re only going to improve your position if someone ahead makes a mistake. And when the people ahead are Scott, Alex, Pato O’Ward… these guys are really good, so you’re not going to jump from sixth to first in a stint. We learned from last year, when we came through from near the back due to the fuel issue to come home 11th: it’s when the pack starts getting spread out that you can make your moves forward, because then the driver ahead can’t benefit so much from the tow of the driver ahead of him. So if you have superior speed in your car, that’s when you can really use it and make hay.
“The reason the pack is spreading out is the variable of weather and track conditions. The track heats up and becomes slicker, more treacherous, and the hotter the ambient temperature, the thinner the air, so there’s less downforce provided by the wings. In cool conditions, in denser air, the downforce level means everyone feels comfortable enough to run pretty close to the car in front; as the heat increases, that tends to exaggerate the differences between the best car and driver combinations and the not so good ones. And we had a very strong car and a driver who hadn’t made a mistake all day and was now ready to get after it.”
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. With Ganassi’s victory hopes now resting squarely on his shoulders (notwithstanding Kanaan also being in the mix), Ericsson cut loose following his final stop. He didn’t come off the gas for the final 20 racing laps, and was able to pass both of the Arrow McLaren SP cars, first O’Ward, then compatriot Felix Rosenqvist, to move into the lead. He then pulled away to a three-second advantage and appeared home and dry… except life – Indy life – is never that simple. Johnson stuck the #48 Ganassi car in the wall with six laps to go, and in order for the race to finish under green-flag conditions for the sake of the fans, IndyCar Race Control elected to wave the red flags while the AMR Safety Team completed the clean-up operation. The remaining 27 cars trickled into the pits.
Ericsson described the next 10 minutes, sitting on pitlane waiting for the race’s resumption, as the hardest of his career, and admitted that he needed Goldberg to calm him down. How calm was Goldberg himself?
“You’d have to ask Dario [Franchitti] about that!” he chuckles, “because he was there on our pitstand. When the yellow came out, I knew the race was going to be red flagged, so there was a period of 10 or 15 seconds when I was mad about it. But I’ve known and worked with Marcus for a long time now and as soon as he came on the radio, I could tell his demeanor had switched from that calmness I described earlier to… something different! At that point, your instinct tells you, ‘Hey, now’s the time for someone to be the voice of reason.’ I feed off his energy, he feeds off mine, and if both of us are too spooled up, we’re not going to win this race.”
Ericsson’s angst over what had just happened and anxiety over what was to come was understandable. Such was the draft effect down the front straight, in none of the previous restarts had the leader out of Turn 4 been the leader into Turn 1, and O’Ward is never reticent about making moves, especially when the glittering prize of Indy 500 glory is just two racing laps away. But Goldberg reassured his driver on that topic.
“I gave Marcus his 10 or 15 seconds to lay out his frustration, let’s say, and then it was time to rein it in,” he recalls. “I told him, ‘You know what car you have, you know what speed you have, you know what you did to get into the lead. Even if Pato or someone else passes you on the restart, it won’t last long. You and your car are so in tune that you’re just going to go by him again either into Turn 3 or at the start of the final lap.’
“Honestly, between us, we had gone through all types of scenarios prior to the race – ‘If this happens, what do we do? If that happens, what do we do?’ So when Marcus was sitting there on pitlane, we just went over them again… but with me taking a more forceful tone! I told him to do his restart like we practiced, and then do everything he’d been doing all day long and then no one could beat us. And as soon as I got that point across, I could tell from his voice that he was back to ground, focused and ready to go.”
As is now famous, Ericsson made a brilliant restart, breaking the tow just enough that he was able to head into Turn 1 unchallenged on Lap 199. But it was inevitable that O’Ward would come back at him at least once more, and through Turns 3 and 4, he drew up to the tail of the red and white Ganassi car. Heading to the yard of bricks for the start of the last lap, Ericsson made an exaggerated dive left, hugging the pitwall, ensuring the Arrow McLaren SP in his mirrors didn’t sneak up the inside into Turn 1 but would instead have to try the long way around.
Sure enough, approaching that oh-so-daunting T1 for the final time, O’Ward pulled out and drew alongside the Ganassi car, but he was on the outside, so when Ericsson necessarily eased right, too, to take something closer to the ideal racing line, O’Ward had to breathe the throttle and concede. His challenge was over. Even before Sage Karam caused a slightly early conclusion to proceedings by crashing his Dreyer & Reinbold car at Turn 2 and bringing out the caution, Ericsson had broken his rival’s challenge.
Recalls Goldberg: “From the moment the green flag dropped, Marcus played it perfectly. Got a good enough restart, broke the tow, held the lead into Turn 1. Then on the final lap, he forced Pato to try around the outside of Turn 1, placed his car perfectly and that was it.” But he believes that the victory was the result of something more nuanced than a highly talented driver taking full advantage of a great car and a flawless pitcrew.
“Marcus is a student of the sport,” he observes, “and this was a classic example of him always embracing the resources that Chip Ganassi Racing provides. There is a vast amount of information here, and he had spoken to Dario on what to do, he’d studied endless film on what to do and he’s listened to and learned from all his teammates since Day 1 here. So when he got in this situation, he knew exactly what was needed: he just had to execute. Those 10 minutes on pitlane under the red flag, all I had done really was remind him of all those things he already knew!”
Even now, five months on, you can hear the happiness and relief in Goldberg’s voice but rather than reliving it, he’s able to take an analytical view of his greatest day.
“That last stint of the 500 had it all,” he says. “Marcus had gotten into third by driving the race perfectly through the previous stints, no mistakes. Then it was time to drop the hammer, and he made two great precision passes on Pato and Felix, and pulled away to a three-second lead. Then he had to mentally deal with the fact that his advantage was suddenly deleted by that red flag and from being comfortable, he now had someone right behind him, and he had to lay it all on the line to be extremely aggressive – but fair – in defense. Suddenly this reserved, calculated mathematician had to turn into a lion! But he also had to keep his head and become a perfectionist in how to place the car and maintain his advantage. So yeah, that last stint required all his different skills.
“I cannot reiterate enough how much of a joy it has been to work with Marcus the last three seasons, watching him evolve and improve and reveal his potential. And that day, he showed it all, exactly when he needed to.”
And with that multi-faceted skillset now reinforced by a core of confidence – Marcus Ericsson doesn’t just believe he can do it, he knows he can do it – his evolution probably hasn’t ended yet. And Brad Goldberg is the right guy to ensure that potential grows and is then fulfilled.
