Marcus Armstrong went from Ferrari junior to IndyCar podium finisher

Marcus Armstrong was a Ferrari junior who became Italian F4 champion in 2017 and runner-up in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2019. His Formula 2 years mixed breakthroughs with long stretches in mid-table. He then switched to IndyCar, where he has collected a Rookie of the Year title and a podium.

How did Armstrong win the 2017 Italian F4 title?

Armstrong won the 2017 Italian F4 Championship with Prema after a slow start with three third-place finishes and two races without points in the opening two rounds. He took his first win at Vallelunga, put in a podium at every race of the second Mugello round, and sealed the title with two races to spare at Monza.

He ran the ADAC F4 series alongside it. Two non-scoring finishes opened that campaign too, but a first win at the Red Bull Ring, wins at Oschersleben and the Nurburgring, and a steady run of podiums pulled him into the title fight. He finished as runner-up to Juri Vips by 4.5 points.

Ferrari had signed him to its Driver Academy in December 2016, alongside those two campaigns with Prema. The programme gave him a clear route through the junior ranks.

A Ferrari junior who won a national title, then found his strongest results in sprint races and, later, in IndyCar.

What did the Toyota Racing Series add to his record?

Armstrong raced in the Toyota Racing Series from 2017 to 2019 with M2 Competition. He won the opener on his debut in 2017 and finished fourth in the championship that year. In 2018 he won two of the first three races and led the championship by 41 points at one stage, before a mechanical failure while leading cost him dearly late in the season.

The 2018 title went to Robert Shwartzman, and Armstrong finished third, 15 points behind. The 2019 season was a stronger one for him. He opened with podiums in all three races, won at Teretonga and took five wins in total, but Liam Lawson took the title by ten points.

At Hampton Downs he took two wins in four races and moved into the championship lead. A suspension problem at Taupo followed, yet he still won the final race of that round, and he went into the last round five points behind Lawson. Lawson then won the title, with Armstrong runner-up on 346 points and five wins.

His 2017 campaign also had setbacks. He failed to finish the third race at Hampton after touching Richard Verschoor, but a further win and two second places at the final round gave him fourth in the series.

Formula 3 with Prema and the 2019 title race

In 2018 he moved up to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Prema, alongside Robert Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou. He scored a podium on his second race at Pau, won at the Norisring and finished fifth overall with 260 points. He lost the championship lead to Dan Ticktum at Silverstone, and a triple retirement in the final round at Hockenheim cost him places in the closing standings.

The 2018 season ended on a difficult note. He finished second at Misano in race one and failed to score in the other two races there, including a retirement from pole in race three after being hit from behind. His ninth and last podium of the year came at the Red Bull Ring.

That season also brought a Macau debut, where he finished eighth in the main race after the same result in the qualifying race.

The 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship was a different story. Armstrong reunited with Prema and joined Nicolas Todt's All Road Management scheme in April 2019. He finished as runner-up to Robert Shwartzman with 158 points, three wins, seven podiums and three poles, and he also collected four fastest laps over the year.

The 2019 season opened in Barcelona with third in race one. At Paul Ricard he collided with Jake Hughes in race one and still finished sixth, and at the Hungaroring he won the second race from reverse pole, his first win of the season.

His best weekend came at Spa, where he won race two and dedicated the result to Anthoine Hubert, who had died in a crash the night before. At Monza he was given a twenty-second penalty for exceeding the minimum delta time and dropped to 21st before the next restart.

He returned to Macau in November 2023 with MP Motorsport, saying he had unfinished business there. He finished 18th in the main race, behind teammates Dennis Hauger and Mari Boya.

Why were his Formula 2 years so mixed?

Armstrong raced Formula 2 from 2020 to 2022 with three different teams. He finished second on his debut in Austria and won the Jeddah sprint in 2021, but each season ended 13th in the standings. In 2022 he won three sprint races, including Imola, Red Bull Ring and Zandvoort.

His first season with ART Grand Prix started strongly. He pitted early in the Austrian feature race, the gamble paid, and he finished second on his debut. Then came six rounds without points, and the season ended 13th with 52 points, against 149 for teammate Christian Lundgaard. It was his worst placing in a full-time series.

Hungary ended with damage. He tagged Artem Markelov while avoiding a slowing Christian Lundgaard, and the Russian was sent into the barriers, forcing Armstrong to retire. A ninth place in the Mugello feature race brought his first points since Austria, and the season finished with two podiums and five further points finishes.

At DAMS in 2021 he partnered Roy Nissany. Monaco went badly, with a collision with Juri Vips that ended his feature race. The campaign still produced a first Formula 2 win in the inaugural Jeddah sprint, followed by two podiums and 49 points, which left him 13th again.

Baku went badly. He qualified sixth and started fifth in the first sprint, but in the second he misjudged a braking point on cold tyres during a restart and slammed into the wall. His feature race barely lasted half a lap after contact from Theo Pourchaire. Silverstone then brought his first Formula 2 podium in slightly more than a year, second in the second sprint behind Richard Verschoor, followed by 12th in the feature race.

Monza and Russia were quieter. He qualified 17th at Monza and finished ninth after Verschoor was disqualified, and in Russia he qualified 11th and finished 11th in both races.

Jeddah's second sprint went wrong when Clement Novalak hit him from behind. At Yas Marina he was on course for a third podium of the season in the second sprint, but an engine failure while leading ended that. In the feature race he switched to an alternate strategy, passed his rivals and finished seventh.

He moved to Hitech Grand Prix for 2022 alongside Vips. His best weekends were Imola, where he won the sprint and claimed his first win of the year, the Red Bull Ring, where he led every lap of the sprint, and Zandvoort, his third win of the season. Once again he ended the season 13th, this time with 93 points.

Silverstone was close to points. He started twelfth in the sprint, finished ninth and narrowly missed scoring, then took eighth in the feature race. In Budapest he took his first front-row start in the category by qualifying second, and he finished sixth after a slow pit stop let rivals past on fresher tyres. Monza was costly, with a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage off track and a ten-second stop-and-go for an illegal pit entry.

In France he qualified eighth. In the sprint he collided with Jehan Daruvala and was eventually dropped to 14th for it. In the feature race a spin by David Beckmann ended his race on the first lap.

Did Ferrari keep him after Formula 2?

Ferrari invited him, one of five drivers, to its Driver Academy in November 2016. He made his Formula One test debut at Fiorano in January 2018 in the Ferrari SF71H, and he returned to the same car in April, covering more than 200 km. Ferrari and he parted ways after the 2021 season.

On that first outing he described the car as not too difficult to drive.

He was candid about the decision. Staying in the academy, he said, had become a dead end for him, and that judgement pointed him toward a different ladder altogether.

How did his IndyCar move begin?

Armstrong first tested an IndyCar at Sebring with Dale Coyne Racing in October 2022. Chip Ganassi Racing signed him in December for the No. 11 entry, and he finished his rookie season 20th overall with 214 points, winning Rookie of the Year despite missing a number of races.

Results on the road and street courses were mixed. St. Petersburg brought eleventh on debut, Long Beach gave him eighth in his second race, and Toronto produced seventh, his best finish of the year. His first oval test came after the season finale, and he completed the Indy Rookie Orientation Programme in October within 57 laps.

He finished the 2023 season with eighth at the Laguna Seca finale, despite several collisions with other drivers. He had missed a number of races, yet still described the rookie title as a great bonus.

When did Armstrong score his first IndyCar podium?

His first IndyCar podium came in 2024 at Detroit, where he finished third for Chip Ganassi Racing. The same year his first Indianapolis 500 ended with an engine failure in the opening laps, and he finished the season 14th overall with 298 points.

The season opened with fifth at the Sonsio Grand Prix, where he had been in the fight for the lead.

The 2024 season closed with four more top-ten finishes in the final six races, two of them fifth places. That run set up his move to Meyer Shank Racing for 2025, where he partnered Felix Rosenqvist.

The Meyer Shank Racing seasons and a second podium

The 2025 season began with a retirement at St. Petersburg, but he bounced back with seventh at Thermal and another seventh at the Sonsio Grand Prix. The car was clearly capable of running near the front.

The Indianapolis 500 brought a heavy crash in pre-qualifying, but he was cleared to race and finished 18th. A run of six consecutive top-ten finishes followed, and his second career podium came in Iowa during that stretch.

Career results by series