From a Formula BMW world title to a five-race Formula One debut with Manor, then an Indianapolis 500 victory and a long IndyCar career with Andretti and Arrow McLaren.
Alexander Rossi is an American racing driver, born in 1991, who won the 2016 Indianapolis 500 as an IndyCar rookie. He raced five Formula One Grands Prix in 2015, won the 2021 24 Hours of Daytona and has raced in the IndyCar Series since 2016.
Alexander Rossi is an American racing driver who has competed in IndyCar since 2016 and won the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie. He also raced in Formula One in 2015, took part in GP2, and took the 2021 Daytona 24 Hours overall. His career spans open-wheel racing, sportscars and off-road events.
Who is Alexander Rossi?
Alexander Michael Rossi was born on 25 September 1991 and grew up in Nevada City, California. As a teenager he moved to Europe to chase a Formula One career, a route that took him through karting, Formula BMW and the European feeder series.
He has raced in the IndyCar Series with Ed Carpenter Racing since 2025, having spent most of his IndyCar career elsewhere. Across his career he has also driven in the 24 Hours of Daytona and Le Mans, and he has run in the Baja 1000 and the Bathurst 1000.
An American who moved to Europe as a teenager and went on to win the Indianapolis 500 in his first IndyCar season.
How did Rossi rise through the junior ranks?
Rossi's early racing was in the United States. In 2005 he took the IKF Grand National title in the 100cc Yamaha class, and in 2006 he won a Skip Barber scholarship. He finished third overall in the Skip Barber National Championship that year and became its youngest winner, at the age of fourteen.
In 2007 he finished third in the Formula BMW USA championship, with three wins and five podiums. The following year he returned to the series, won the title and became the first American to win the Formula BMW crown in the Americas Championship. He then won the Formula BMW World Final in Mexico City, beating Michael Christensen, and earned a Formula One test with BMW Sauber.
How did Rossi's European ladder work?
In 2009 Rossi moved to Europe, joining Hitech Racing in the International Formula Master and then ISR Racing. He won three races, all of them from reverse-grid starts, and finished fourth overall with the highest-placed rookie position.
In 2010 he joined ART Grand Prix in the new GP3 Series, sharing the team with Pedro Nunes and Esteban Gutierrez. He won twice and finished fourth in the series. The following year he moved to Formula Renault 3.5 with Fortec Motorsport, with wins in Aragon and at Le Castellet, and he finished third in the championship as the top rookie.
The GP2 Series came next. Rossi first took part in the 2009-10 GP2 Asia Series, where he was fourth in his debut race after starting 13th. He made his GP2 Series debut in Bahrain in 2013, finishing third in his first race, and in 2015 he joined Racing Engineering, finishing second in the championship. He won four GP2 races in total.
How did Rossi come close to a Formula One seat?
Rossi was among three drivers tied to the American outfit US F1, along with Jose Maria Lopez and Jonathan Summerton. The squad had signed him as reserve and test driver, but it folded first. He also tested a 2009-spec BMW Sauber F1.09 at the young driver test in Jerez, a prize for winning the Formula BMW World Final.
That test earned him an FIA Super Licence, and at the time he was the only American to hold one. In 2012 he joined Caterham as a test driver, and he became the first American in a Formula One session on a race weekend since Scott Speed's 2007 outing, when he drove Heikki Kovalainen's car in first practice at the Spanish round.
He drove Caterham's car in first practice again in 2013 and 2014, and he left the team in July 2014 when new investors took over. He then joined Marussia as reserve driver, and he was pencilled in for a Belgian Grand Prix debut in place of Max Chilton, before the team reversed that decision.
What did Rossi achieve in his 2015 Formula One debut?
Rossi made his debut in 2015 for the newly named Manor Marussia team at the Singapore Grand Prix. He started 20th and last, then worked his way to 14th, ahead of his teammate Will Stevens, despite losing radio contact with his crew around the halfway point.
He entered five of the final seven races that year. At Japan he finished 18th, again one place ahead of Stevens. Back in his home country, he finished 12th at the United States Grand Prix, which matched the team's best of the year, and he became the first American to race on a circuit built for Formula One in the US.
He followed that with 15th in Mexico and completed the stint with 19th at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Rossi had chosen car number 53 as his career number, in honour of Herbie, after his original choice of 16 was already claimed by Red Bull Racing as a reserve number.
| Race | Result |
|---|---|
| Singapore Grand Prix | Qualified 20th, finished 14th |
| Japanese Grand Prix | 18th |
| United States Grand Prix | 12th, Manor's best result of the season |
| Mexican Grand Prix | 15th |
| Brazilian Grand Prix | 19th |
Why did Rossi's Indianapolis 500 win matter?
After Formula One, Rossi signed with Andretti Autosport for the 2016 IndyCar season. He had missed most of the preseason testing, and his IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg ended in 12th, the highest-placed rookie that day. He had earlier said he had little interest in IndyCar, mainly because he was hesitant to race on ovals. He won the 2016 Indianapolis 500 from 11th on the grid, and he became the race's top rookie in qualifying.
In the closing laps the cars ahead pitted for fuel, and Rossi nursed his own tank over the final stint to take the win. After crossing the line he ran out of fuel and was towed to victory lane. He finished the season 11th in the points, and before choosing Andretti he had come close to a deal with Dale Coyne Racing. He was named IndyCar's 2016 Rookie of the Year.
How did the Andretti years unfold?
Rossi stayed with Andretti through 2017, when he finished second at the Honda Indy Toronto and third at Pocono. His second career win came at Watkins Glen, the first of his road-course wins in IndyCar, after taking his first career pole there.
His best seasons followed. In 2018 he won at Long Beach from pole, and Mid-Ohio brought him pole and victory, which lifted him into second in the points. He finished the year second in the Drivers' Championship, 57 points behind Scott Dixon. He also drove from the last row to fourth at the Indianapolis 500 that year. For 2018 he also swapped car numbers with Marco Andretti, moving to the No. 27 team.
In 2019 he won at Long Beach by a 20-second margin, and he finished second in the Indianapolis 500 behind Simon Pagenaud after a fuel pump problem. He then won at Road America by a 28.4-second margin. That season he was third in the Drivers' Championship.
The following years were harder. In 2020 the winless run began: he had no victories despite spending several races at the front, though he collected five podiums. In 2021 he won no races and finished only one podium, at Portland. His 2022 season began slowly, but he finished fifth at the Indianapolis 500 and then won the Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis road course on 30 July, ending a 49-race winless run.
What did Rossi achieve in sportscars?
Rossi made his Le Mans debut in 2013, driving a Zytek Z11SN for Greaves Motorsport with Eric Lux and Tom Kimber-Smith. They finished 23rd overall. Rossi had been brought in to take the seat held by Christian Zugel, who was kept out by family and business matters. In 2014 he competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona for DeltaWing.
Rossi returned to sportscars with Acura Team Penske in 2019, finishing third overall at Daytona alongside Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor. The second half was wet, and Rossi conceded that rivals were slightly stronger in those conditions. He was back with Penske for Daytona in 2020, though an accident involving Castroneves compromised the team early in the race.
In 2021 he joined Wayne Taylor Racing as a third driver for the endurance races, and he co-drove the team's Acura ARX-05 to overall victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona. He then won the Michelin Endurance Cup with Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque.
How did Rossi's McLaren and Ed Carpenter years play out?
In 2022 Andretti announced that Rossi would leave at the end of the season, and he signed with Arrow McLaren SP for 2023. That year he opened with fourth at St. Petersburg and took fifth at the Indianapolis 500, the only McLaren finisher from the group as O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist were both caught up in late incidents.
His title challenge faded in 2023, and he finished ninth in the standings. In July 2024 he announced his departure from McLaren, and Christian Lundgaard took his place. In September 2024 Ed Carpenter Racing signed him for 2025, replacing Rinus VeeKay.
His first season with the team ended early at the 2025 Indianapolis 500, when his car caught fire in the pits on lap 73. In 2026 he struggled for much of the year and finished 15th in the championship, but he took his first podium for the team with third at Laguna Seca.
What were Rossi's off-road and touring car projects?
Rossi made his first Baja 1000 start in 2018, sharing a Honda Ridgeline with Jeff Proctor. He became the fifth Indianapolis 500 winner to race the event. He returned in 2019, when his truck was leading before he rolled it, and then in 2021, when the team took the Class 7 victory.
In 2019 he made his Bathurst 1000 debut as a wildcard for Walkinshaw Andretti United, alongside James Hinchcliffe. The pair started 25th, finished 19th and were promoted to 18th after a penalty for another driver.
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