Ed Carpenter Racing driver, Alexander Rossi’s unfortunate DNF after brushing the wall in Toronto, is “behind us now”.
Alexander Rossi had his 2025 Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto race end early after commonly brushing the wall, which caused a full course caution on Lap 31. When asked about the incident, Rossi answered, “The wall was not lined up properly. I’m not going to speculate how that comes to be. It’s obviously hard to build temporary street courses. You’re building an entire racetrack and infrastructure from nothing.“
The ECR driver continued, “At the same time we’re an elite motor racing organization, so there’s got to be quality control. This is not the first time something like this has happened. The first year at Detroit, Kirkwood had some similar issues.“
“Something to learn from for everyone. That’s behind us now. There’s probably no more street courses till probably March.“
Hybrid at Laguna Seca
IndyCar returns to Laguna Seca, this time with the hybrid power unit set up. Rossi returns with a new team and a podium from last year. However, with the first hybrid race at Laguna Seca, Rossi goes not know if last year’s performance is going to “going to translate“
“It’s so hard in IndyCar because especially this year kind of everything that existed last year doesn’t really apply because of the hybrid, right? Laguna last year was the final race of a non-hybrid engine. The hybrid came on after that.”
“But then the races we’ve been with the hybrid, we also had hybrid last year, it’s a different tire. Just because there’s a connection to past performance, it doesn’t really mean from one year to the next it’s all going to translate.“
With Rossi also at a new team, he is taking advice from teammate, Christian Rasmussen, about last year’s race with ECR. But with the changes to the track and to the power unit, Rossi doesn’t “really know”.
“So I don’t really know. I think that ECR and the team and Christian was pretty happy with the car he had last year. But again, that was a non-hybrid car. The track has gone through another year of weathering so the pavement is obviously going to be a little bit different than what it was in ’24, which is different than what it was in ’23.“
Looking to 2026
With all the street courses done and dusted, teams and drivers are starting to look ahead to the 2026 season, Rossi is no different. When asked if he was looking ahead on Monday’s press conference, the 33-year-old answered, “We’re definitely thinking about 2026, especially as the street course phase of the season is now over.”
“There’s already things that we have had in development really since St. Pete, but due to the time constraints and the personnel restraints, it can’t be on a car before Toronto comes.“
However, there are four more races in 2025 with Laguna Seca next. Even though he is thinking of 2026, Alexander Rossi is still laser focused on 2025.
“Those are things you’re very excited about to have available to you in ’26, but at the same time there’s still four races and four tracks that in theory we should be very strong at. It’s important to not lose sight of the job that you have in the moment. Just because you’re excited about something it will come in the future, you still have to execute the day that you’re at the track.“
