Although only 23 years old, VeeKay is already going into his fifth season in North America’s premier open-wheel championship.
Last year’s output by the Dutchman featured only two top 10s and a best result of sixth en route to placing 14th in the standings. Statistically, it was the worst season of his career. However, battling through such a challenging campaign forced growth for both he and the organization.
“With it being our toughest, hardest season so far, it made me work harder and also made me change my voice a little bit in the team and made my voice a bit more demanding, I think,” VeeKay said.
“I feel like I've always really listened to the team, to what they say. I still do, but I think right now I've also got the voice, like I can talk to them and really make them change things if we need to.”
Among the lowly 2023 was ECR’s midseason driver swap as VeeKay's team-mate changed from Conor Daly to Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2012 IndyCar champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner. While the impact of that swap undoubtedly influenced VeeKay, natural maturity on and off the track played a factor, according to team owner/driver Ed Carpenter.
“I think it's all of the above,” Carpenter said.
“He gets more and more of his own experience. I'm sure there definitely was an effect from Ryan, just learning from a great teammate, a veteran teammate, a champion, an Indy 500 winner, being around that, seeing how he approaches it, and just getting older. He’s married now. Your life changes as you get older. Your perspective changes. I think it's all of those things.”
Those words by Carpenter only build up VeeKay’s motivation, but also be a mentor to incoming rooking and reigning Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen in a car previously occupied by Hunter-Reay.
“Yeah, it does give me confidence to hear that, but also I believe I'm ready,” said VeeKay, who has one IndyCar Series win (IMS Road Course, 2021).
“This is going to be my fifth season in IndyCar. We've had to go through a lot with the team, so it's been a fun ride so far. “I've always had a more experienced driver next to me. I still have Ed on the ovals, but I feel like I got the experience to carry the team and know what we need to do as a team to get better, also during a race weekend, and I know how to adapt to get better.
“I think also Christian, he trusts me, trusts my experience. I think it'll be a good season, and I'm totally ready for the leadership role.”
And when it comes to learning how to lead, VeeKay credited the Hunter-Reay with showing him what that looks like.
“The preparation with Ryan, that he really showed me, he would have a whole notebook of things he thought about at night that popped up in his head, and he wrote it down and analyzed it and thought about it even more,” VeeKay said.
“Stuff like that I had never done. I just started carrying a notebook that I just wrote stuff in and thought about and tried to just be as ready as possible for every race, and don't try to find things out on the fly. That really helped.
“I think I was more prepared in situations in a race, where in the past I would kind of be in doubt of what to do. I really had a strong opinion on where to go.
“I think those are things that really helped me just be more ready for the races.”
