Kirkwood, who topped the fourth session of the IndyCar test at Thermal Club, won 31 of his 50 races on the Road To Indy and was champion in USF2000, Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights.
But when the Michael Andretti and Sauber Formula 1 deal fell apart at the 11th hour in 2021, Colton Herta’s planned move to F1 was stymied and he remained in IndyCar, which meant Andretti had no room for Kirkwood.
Instead, the talented youngster spent his rookie season at AJ Foyt Racing, where he showed he had giant-killing potential but endured way too many incidents. However, Andretti signed him as a replacement for the McLaren-bound Alexander Rossi, and Kirkwood is expected to shine alongside established talents such as Colton Herta and Romain Grosjean.
“I've got kind of a reference of what the Andretti Autosport car is already like – I did three days in the car pre-season to 2022,” Kirkwood said. “It's kind of funny because in 2022, the entire year I was trying to mimic what the Andretti car was like, and I feel like I never got to that point with the AJ Foyt car.
“I needed a year to learn and try and hone in my skills and learn all the different things about IndyCar that you don't learn in junior formulas. Biggest thing is pitstops and strategy and having two different types of tyres. Those are way different.”
Asked if it was fair to say he was overdriving the Foyt car, leading to incidents and accidents, Kirkwood replied immediately: “That's completely fair to say. You could definitely say that. At the end of the day, when you're 20th and you feel stuck, naturally you're not going to just give up, you're going to push to the absolute limits. In a sense that's what we did.
“We overachieved some places and we underachieved by trying to overachieve at some other places. It's unfortunate events, but I learned so much and I can't wait to take what I learned into this season.”
Kirkwood admits, too, that last year seeing his Indy Lights title rival David Malukas shine on several occasions in his rookie season made him happy because it was vindication of the quality of the 2021 Indy Lights field.
“[Malukas] did an incredible job last year as a rookie driver,” said Kirkwood. “His drive at Gateway was incredible, just drove around everyone, close to winning. He did a phenomenal job.
“I think him and I were very comparable in the Indy Lights season. I won 10 races, he won seven, and it came down to like a few points at the end of it. It was either one of ours to win. Honestly, I was happy to see him do really well because if we both did not so good it would be like, ‘Oh, maybe that Indy Lights group wasn't that good.’
“But actually David doing so well kind of put me back on the map a little bit, because it's like, ‘Kirkwood did better than him and won the championship against him, so obviously he's going to have a chance the following year.’ If you look at it in that sense, it actually helps me.”
Despite returning to the team with which he won the Indy Lights championship in 2021, Kirkwood said he didn’t feel entirely comfortable with his #27 crew at first.
“They've all worked together for a long period. I'm almost like the misfit coming in,” he explained. “When they worked for Rossi for seven years, everyone gelled together with that. Now there's a new kid coming in, right?
“It's cool because they get along so, so well and they're kind of bringing me into their circle now, which is great. We're starting to gel.”
