Meyer Shank Racing has signed Felix Rosenqvist from Arrow McLaren to join Tom Blomqvist in the team next year on a multi-year deal, with Simon Pagenaud’s future in IndyCar now in doubt.

Rosenqvist has driven for McLaren since 2021, when he joined after two seasons at Chip Ganassi Racing including a rookie of the year effort in 2019 and his sole career race win in 2020 at Road America.

The Swede is 12th in the championship standings in 2023 and has struggled to match team leader Pato O’Ward this year and continue the progress he made last year when he finished eighth, one year on from ending up 21st during his maiden season with McLaren.

Rosenqvist has been the odd one out at McLaren for two seasons now. Last year it signed Alexander Rossi and tried to add Alex Palou, which would have signalled Rosenqvist’s exit, but after a lawsuit was settled out of court Rosenqvist got a reprieve.

Rosenqvist is currently 38 points behind Rossi, and although he’s sixth in the series in terms of average start (9.31), his average finish (14.19) shows where there is work to do in terms of race execution and consistency.

McLaren has been to blame for some of his issues, but crashes and errors have been too frequent in his McLaren tenure.

He was told recently he could look for other options with Palou expected to join McLaren once again – until McLaren boss Zak Brown revealed Palou wouldn’t be joining the team, potentially once again propping the door open for Rosenqvist to stay.

However Shank’s desire to sign Rosenqvist – the two have been linked for some time now – clearly helped sway Rosenqvist’s decision to sign on a multi-year deal. McLaren is understood to be filling the seat left by Rosenqvist with Dale Coyne’s David Malukas who should be announced by the team in the near future.

Three amazing seasons with @FRosenqvist.