Scott McLaughlin says the feel he has for his car is “night and day” compared to his rookie IndyCar season, last year.
The three-time Supercars champion took the second race win of his IndyCar career at Mid-Ohio, the result makes McLaughlin only the second repeat winner so far this season.
The 29-year-old arguably can now be considered a genuine threat for victory wherever he goes, the success has bred confidence, with McLaughlin now more “assertive” about his set-up choices.
“Oh, it’s night and day,” says McLaughlin, “Even my experience in terms of what I want from the car, what I’m asking from the team, what I want from the car in a pit stop, wing changes, whatever. I’m a lot more assertive now with what I want.
“I’m a lot more assertive with where I’m going to go. I’m not second-guessing what I’m doing. I’m just, this is what it’s going to be, and so be it.”
“I’m super proud with where we’re going and my development, I think we can continue to push, and I think it’s been building. At the end of the day, I feel like since Barber and then we went to Indy and we were basically leading that race, and then obviously slick tires didn’t work in the wet. Basically every race since then I’ve been there or thereabouts. Indy, crashed when I was in a good spot, wasn’t going to win the race but a good spot for points. Every race since then we’ve been in a spot to be top 5 or top 8. We’ve converted it the last two races, and that’s what we’ve got to continue to do if we want to get back into this fight.”
As with many champions, the winning mentality plays a big part in his on-track performance. “I think it’s just all about just belief, believing in what you can do, going back to the basics and just trusting your feel, trusting what got me here was what I should just go back to and just trust. That’s certainly what I’ve done the last six months, last eight months. You know, I’m just super pumped.
“I’m very competitive. I hate losing to my teammates. I hate making mistakes. But that makes me competitive. That makes me work hard and make myself better.”
“I think if I lose any competitiveness or aggression to myself, I’m not going to be as good as I want to be. I’ve got two teammates that are pushing me to no end, and if I do the right job on the day, I can certainly beat them as we’ve seen.”
With Scott Dixon having flown the New Zealand flag singlehandedly for many years Mclaughlin is excited to join him in the Indycar ranks along with fellow Kiwi and potential Indycar driver in Hunter McElrea, who was also a race winner in Indy Lights at Mid Ohio.
“I think Scotty has flown the flag for so long here in the U.S., and to now have some support for him, I guess, and Hunter, I would be very surprised if he’s not an Indycar driver one day. He’s killing it. He’s a young bloke with a lot of confidence, a lot of feeling with the car, and he’s in a great team at Andretti. I think we’ll see him in the near future in an Indycar. Awesome for him to get a race win.”
“For me, I’m constantly trying to sort of shape myself. If I’m somewhere near where Scotty has been, he’s a six-time champ and someone that’s just a legend of motorsport over here that we probably don’t give enough respect to down under. I think he’s someone that you can really use as a role model, and if I can have half the success he’s had, I’m going to have a pretty good career.”
The Indycar series now heads north to the street course in Toronto, Canada for round 10 of the 17-round championship.
