Axed McLaren driver ‘disgusted’ by sacking

Theo Pourchaire has stated he was left “disgusted” by McLaren's decision to part ways with him midway through the 2024 IndyCar season.

Pourchaire, who won last year's Formula 2 championship, made his IndyCar debut earlier this year with McLaren at Long Beach.

The Frenchman was signed to a longer-term deal after the initial one-off appearance - but following the June race weekend from Road America, Pourchaire was notified his services were no longer required at the team.

McLaren replaced Pourchaire with Nolan Seigel, who became the sixth driver to drive the No 6. entry over the last year.

Pourchaire has claimed he was signed to a multi-year deal before he was ousted.

“To be 100 per cent transparent, McLaren had signed me to a multi-year contract to drive with them in IndyCar,” Pourchaire told Auto Hebdo.

“And then, on the Tuesday morning before Laguna Seca, I learned from my manager that they had decided not to have me drive at Laguna Seca, as well as for the rest of the season.”

Pourchaire left 'disgusted' by axing news

Pourchaire scored a best result of 10th in Detroit during his five races with McLaren, where he competed alongside Alex Rossi and Pato O'Ward.

The 20-year-old revealed the phone call from McLaren regarding the news lasted only one minute. 

“At first, I was very surprised, I didn’t understand, I thought it was fake,” he said. 

“We had only signed a few weeks before. I was disgusted.

“The team ended up calling me for a minute, around 11am that same day, the day before my planned departure for Laguna Seca, to tell me that I was excluded from the program. They didn’t give me the specific reasons.”