Christian Lundgaard became Denmark's first IndyCar race winner

Christian Lundgaard is a Danish driver who came through the Alpine academy, won the 2022 IndyCar Rookie of the Year title and became the first Danish driver to win an IndyCar race in 2023. His European years ran through the Eurocup and Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix. His 2026 season, with two wins and a third place in the championship, was the strongest of his career.

How did Lundgaard rise through the junior ranks?

Lundgaard began single-seater racing in 2017 at the age of fifteen, winning the SMP F4 and Spanish F4 championships in his debut year with MP Motorsport. Before that he had been a professional kart driver from 2012, collecting three major titles, including the 2015 CIK-FIA Karting European Championship.

A December 2016 Motorsport.com list ranked him fifth among the top ten karting drivers with future potential.

The SMP F4 season brought him nine wins, seven poles and ten fastest laps, and he clinched the title with one round to go. In Spanish F4 he won six races, including every race at Aragon, which decided that title as well.

His 2018 step up was the Formula Renault Eurocup, again with MP Motorsport. He opened his account with a win at Monza and added wins at Spa, the Hungaroring and Barcelona. A double retirement at Hockenheim cost him ground, and Max Fewtrell took the title by 17.5 points.

Earlier that season he had finished third in the second race at Paul Ricard, then suffered a retirement and four consecutive fifth-place finishes. He returned to the podium at the Red Bull Ring and won the first race at Spa, which put him top of the Eurocup standings. Motorsport.com ranked him thirteenth among its junior drivers that year.

A karting champion who became Denmark's first IndyCar winner and finished 2026 as a championship contender.

What did the 2019 Formula 3 season bring?

In 2019 Lundgaard moved to ART Grand Prix for the inaugural FIA Formula 3 Championship. He started the year with a strong drive at Barcelona, passing the polesitter at the start, and a five-second penalty for exceeding the virtual safety car delta still left him on the podium. It was his first Formula 3 podium.

The Hungaroring round was his breakthrough. He took his first Formula 3 pole there and then won the race, leading teammate Max Fewtrell home. He also finished third in the Macau qualifying race that year and fourth in the main event, though the season finished sixth in the standings with 97 points.

Silverstone and Spa were less kind. At Silverstone he started fourth, passed Marcus Armstrong at the start and fell to seventh in the first race. He qualified 13th at Spa and still finished fourth in both races there. At Monza he took his second pole of the year, but he scored no further points that season.

What did his Formula 2 years look like?

Lundgaard raced in Formula 2 with ART Grand Prix in 2020, finishing seventh overall with 149 points. He returned to the team in 2021, but that season ended twelfth with fifty points, his worst placing in a full-time series.

His only Formula 2 outing before that came in 2019 at Yas Marina, where a one-off with Trident brought fourteenth and twelfth place finishes and a 23rd place in the championship.

The 2020 season started with a missed pre-season, after a COVID-19 outbreak in his Bahrain hotel kept him in quarantine. He still finished fifth in the first Red Bull Ring sprint. At the second Red Bull Ring round he won his first Formula 2 race, a sprint won by two seconds, and he moved up to second in the standings behind Robert Shwartzman.

Hungary ended early. He qualified sixth but touched the rear tyre of Luca Ghiotto's car, which damaged his front wing and punctured a tyre, and he retired on lap ten.

Mugello was the high point of 2020. He took a maiden pole, five thousandths of a second ahead of Dan Ticktum, and then won the sprint by 14 seconds after passing Juri Vips and Artem Markelov at the first corner. That result moved him into third in the championship, and his teammate Marcus Armstrong finished the year well behind him on 52 points.

The later rounds of 2020 were mixed. At Sochi he was hit by Pedro Piquet and his race ended there. In Bahrain the feature race left him nineteenth, but he stormed through the field to sixth in the sprint, and the season closed with 149 points.

Why was the 2021 Formula 2 season so difficult?

The 2021 season began well. Lundgaard qualified second in Bahrain, only 0.003 seconds behind Guanyu Zhou, and finished second in the second sprint once a penalty was rescinded. By the halfway point he was twelfth with 29 points, and the year did not improve much after that.

Monaco was a bad weekend. Smoke poured from his car early in the feature race and he retired at Mirabeau, and a crash at the same corner in sprint race two ended that race as well. Silverstone brought a third in the first sprint, but a wheel came off in the pit lane during his feature race stop, and he finished 21st.

Baku brought a grid penalty. He qualified twelfth but was given a three-place drop for impeding Guanyu Zhou in qualifying. He finished eleventh in sprint one, but in sprint two he collided with Felipe Drugovich while in the top ten and retired on lap eight. The feature ended ninth after a successful overcut.

Monza was a season-worst qualifying for him, starting nineteenth. He finished fourth in the first sprint, promoted to third after a penalty for Shwartzman, then fell to fourteenth after a spin on the first lap of sprint two. An alternate strategy and a late safety car helped him to eleventh in the feature, and a disqualification of Verschoor promoted him to tenth. Russia was steadier, with a twelfth-place start and points in both races, seventh and ninth at the flag.

Jeddah gave him sixth after a post-race penalty for Jehan Daruvala, and Abu Dhabi, his last Formula 2 round, was out of reach. He finished fifteenth in the first sprint, eighteenth in the second after a puncture, and fifteenth in the feature, and he ended the championship twelfth with fifty points.

Did the Formula One academy lead anywhere?

Lundgaard signed with the Renault Sport Academy in March 2017. His first taste of a Formula One car came after the 2019 Formula 3 season, when he was invited to a private test at the Hungaroring in the Renault R.S.17. He returned to that car at Jerez in November.

In October 2020 he tested the Renault R.S.18 at the Bahrain International Circuit alongside academy member Guanyu Zhou, and he said he felt comfortable straight away on his first run. The academy was rebranded as Alpine F1 Team in 2021, and he worked as a simulator driver that year before leaving before the 2022 season.

Why did he switch to IndyCar?

Rahal Letterman Lanigan gave Lundgaard an IndyCar test at Barber Motorsports Park during July 2021. A month later he made his debut at the Indianapolis road course, qualifying fourth and finishing twelfth, and the team signed him to a multi-year deal that October. He said there was always a chance for Formula One even after a season in IndyCar.

His first full season, in 2022, began with a fifteenth place in qualifying at St. Petersburg and an eleventh place finish. Texas was harder: he qualified 25th on his first oval and retired after contact with Colton Herta. At Long Beach he ran out of fuel on the way to the pits and finished eighteenth, two laps down.

When did Lundgaard win his first IndyCar race?

His first IndyCar race win came at the 2023 Honda Indy Toronto, which made him the first Danish driver to win one. It was his breakout year with Rahal Letterman Lanigan, which followed a contract extension he had signed in August 2022 to stay with the team for 2023 and beyond.

The 2022 season had already produced a first podium. At the Gallagher Grand Prix he qualified sixth, moved up to second, and pressed race leader Alexander Rossi for the lead before settling for second. He added a best third in qualifying at Music City and finished fifth at Laguna Seca after starting sixteenth.

Midway through 2022 he finished eighth at Toronto, his best IndyCar result to that point, after gaining places when others made contact. He led a lap at Road America and finished tenth, and he finished tenth in the first Iowa race before a brake problem ended the second. At the 2022 Indianapolis 500 he became the first Danish driver to race in the event, finishing eighteenth.

He finished his rookie season 14th with 323 points and won the Rookie of the Year title, 18 points ahead of David Malukas. Lundgaard said the route to that title had been very tough.

How did the Arrow McLaren years go?

Lundgaard moved to Arrow McLaren for 2025, replacing Alexander Rossi and partnering Pato O'Ward and Nolan Siegel. He started the Indianapolis 500 from a career-best eighth place and finished seventh, and he took pole at Portland, although an engine change dropped him six positions for that race. He earned six podiums that season.

In 2026 he won the Sonsio Grand Prix and then the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, his second and third career wins. At Road America he was involved in a shunt at turn one on the first lap, then limped his damaged car almost all the way back to the pits under green flag conditions. After repairs he rejoined seconds from being lapped and caught the back of the field under a caution on lap 14, before going on to win.

In July 2026 he announced he would leave Arrow McLaren at the end of the season. A third place in the championship closed the season, the best result of his career. On 29 September 2026 Chip Ganassi Racing announced it had signed him to a multi-year deal to drive its No. 9 car from 2027.

Lundgaard's father, Henrik Lundgaard, was the 2000 European Rally champion. His brother Daniel shared the grid with him in the 2017 Danish F4 season and today designs his helmets.

Career results by series