INDYCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 13, 2023

Marcus Ericsson

Press Conference

Q. Black suit, black car, not red.

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, it's different for sure. No, but it's exciting to be here. First day at the new gig. Yeah, it's a lot of feelings. Excited to get started.

Q. Do you expect Huski Chocolate to be a part of it?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I don't know about that yet. Nothing decided there. I don't know how the car is going to look yet, yeah. Figure it out in a couple months.

Q. Did you need directions to the new place?

MARCUS ERICSSON: It was close enough to Ganassi. It's only a street away. I just started going this week. It's all very new. The team has welcomed me super well. Everyone is pretty nice. Very excited. It feels like there's a lot of optimism in the organization. They have a lot of things going now, a lot of big ambitions. The potential is really good I think for the team.

Yeah, so far it's been really good.

Q. You said this is your first day. Do you know how many test days you're going to get, manufacturer or private?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I think the plan is to do a few more tests here before the new year. It's still a bit up in the air because of all the stuff with the hybrid. All the manufacturers in INDYCAR are deciding how every test is going.

I'm available, so I'm hoping to be in the car as much as I can. That's basically what I've said to the team, that I'll be around, I'm ready to drive whenever you need. Yeah, hopefully I'll be in the car a few more times before the new year.

Q. Who are your engineer, crew chief? Have they decided yet who your crew is?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Olivier is who I'm working with as an engineer. I think the rest is a bit up in the air. Obviously Josh is here today. Yeah, as far as I know, I only really know Olivier is going to be my engineer. I think it's still in the process of deciding how they going to put the whole team together.

Q. After being at Ganassi for as long as you were, what do you think of the team dynamic at Andretti where it really seems like there's a lot of camaraderie?

MARCUS ERICSSON: Yeah, I think, to be honest, I just started this week, so it's still very new. It's a similar feeling within the team. Straightaway it's easygoing. You go into the shop and everyone, it's easy to get into the group. That was sort of the same feeling I had at Ganassi when I went over there. I don't think it's different so far from what I've seen. It seems to be a lot of great people that I get to work with.

Q. INDYCAR is different than the last time you joined a team at Ganassi. When you look at what you were able to accomplish there, what you may be able to accomplish with Andretti...

MARCUS ERICSSON: It's true, when I came to Ganassi, there maybe wasn't as much excitement in the building. I hadn't really shown what I can do.

Now, coming from being a 500 winner, winning multiple races, I think you can definitely feel that excitement from the organization and the team for me to get there. I'm excited to get going and get working.

I think, like I said, the potential is really big in the team. They are ready to really push hard to be at the top. I'm excited to be part of that journey that we're going to do together.

Q. You come from a Formula 1 background as Andretti Global moves towards a global team. Can you give your advice on some of the things to get through that process?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I don't really think so. It's been a while since I was there. All the conversations I've had with Michael and Dan and all them, it's only been INDYCAR focused. That's sort of where I'm focused on.

Of course, if they need my help in any shape or form for the Formula 1 stuff, I'm happy to do that.

Q. Your first couple hours testing the new 2024 spec hybrid unit, any noticeable things that have stood out to you?

MARCUS ERICSSON: No. I think the car itself, you don't really feel a huge difference. Obviously it's a bit more busy on the steering wheel. On the oval you have the weight jacker, front and rear bar, now you have the regen and deploy as well. It's getting busy in the cockpit. I think that's the biggest thing. We're still working on different things with how much regen and deploy. It's still a process we're going through.

I think it's exciting for the series. It's a really cool new feature that we're going to have. I'm hoping it's going to be a way where you can as a driver be smarter than your competitors and do it better than your competitors. That for me excites me with the whole system. As it seems, it's going to be quite manual. I think that will be really cool.

Q. Drivers were saying at least part of yesterday they were doing automatic regen, automatic deploys. Is that what you've been working with today?

MARCUS ERICSSON: We've been doing a bit of everything. We're still in a testing process where we are trying different things. The manufacturers want to try different strategies and different ways of doing this. I think that's good.

I have some experience from F1 when we introduced that. It was my first year in Formula 1 when they introduced the hybrid there. It reminds me a bit of those days where you sort of try different things. It's a bit of an experiment. But, yeah, it worked well so far.

Q. You're obviously learning a lot of this today, but trying to learn your team, them learn you. How do you balance that?

MARCUS ERICSSON: First off, it was me getting comfortable in the car, get a read on the car. I felt happy with that pretty much straightaway. I think the car was feeling nice to drive.

Then, of course, we're focusing mainly on the hybrid stuff today, then sort of helping Honda to really get on top of those things, trying whatever they want. That's the main priority.

Of course, for me being in a new team with new people, it's a great way to also start interacting, sort of building that relationship with Olivier and other people in the team. That's obviously what I'm already working on.

My way of saying feedback, every driver is different about how they talk about the car. That process is obviously great that we can get started from today onwards.

Q. It seemed like a lot of the guys at Andretti are really happy to see you join the team. How much do you sense the rejuvenation that a new face brings to the operation?

MARCUS ERICSSON: I feel really welcomed and, like I said, it feels like there's a lot of excitement in the building, not only for me coming there, but hopefully I'm a part of that excitement. Just everything that's happening in the team, the ambitions, the goals the team has. I think it's a lot of good things happening there.

It's cool for me to join at a time where I feel like there's a lot of potential there. Over the next few years it's going to be interesting to see where that sort of takes us. It's going to be really cool to be part of that.

Like I said, I felt it already from my first day there this week there's a lot of excitement and a lot of people are excited there. That's super cool.