“ It will keep me standing for a while ” – How Ericsson lost the Indy 500

Marcus Ericsson says he will be “maintained at night for a while” by a “painful” defeat of Indianapolis 500 against Alex Palou.

Since his victory in 2022 Indy 500, Luck has deserted Ericsson. He almost won the event in 2023 but a change of rule, the result of a desire to finish the race in green flag conditions, meant that a late prudence did not end the race as she could have done previously and instead, he was exceeded during a shooting by Josef Newgarden.

Then, for 2024, Ericsson changed Ganassi team in Andretti. It was a first disappointing seasonIncluding the Indy 500, where a training accident contributed to the back while in the race, it was removed in an early accident.

Its form has improved this year, but it has always been third of the three full -time Andretti pilots in terms of results.

Ericsson is always seen while smiling in the paddock, but after losing the advance to a decisive movement of Palou with 14 laps to race on Sunday, you could see the pain on Ericsson’s face – even if he smiled through the experience.

“I had these cars for the advance, and I was struggling a little in the dirty air,” he said, referring to Devlin Defrancesco and Louis Foster, who were fighting to stay on the head.

“Alex had a kind of race on me, but I thought he was not going to go. And that’s the thing that will keep me standing at night for a while, this moment and what I did and I did not do.”

It is fair to say that the Victory in 2022 of Ericsson’s Indy 500 has changed his life. This is the case for most people who win, but, after years of people who underestimate or perhaps question his capacity in Formula 1, he came to Indycar and immediately delivered strong performances for Ganassi, culminating in this victory in 2022.

“Right now, I’m just disappointed,” he added. “This race means everything for me. I know how much it means winning this race. So, to finish again, it’s quite painful.”

With DefranceCo and Foster having picked up the tours over the last stops, they towed the leaders in the final stages. And once Palou had succeeded Ericsson because he was the third car online and Ericsson was fourth, he then became difficult to make movements so deeply in a car train without a fortuitous opportunism.

Ericsson was close enough to pass Defrancesco – who was jostling with Foster – four laps before having passed by Palou, and if he had done it could have changed everything.

“In a way, I had half a chance to get by one of them, and it would have put a stamp between me and Alex,” said Ericsson.

“And when he exceeds me, he has somehow had a race, but not a great race, and I somehow opened the door.

“Just those things you play in your head a million times already after the finish line, which you could have done differently there.

“It was difficult with these cars to play, but I had the best seat of the house there to lead the last 15 laps; I need to look at it again, but yes, it’s quite painful.”

On Monday morning, after staying in his motorhome on the track, Ericsson spotted Palou on the balcony of the fourth floor of the media center and was heading, waited a lot of time to finish an interview, just to congratulate him for his victory.

Palou joked by saying that Ericsson could wait a second and that the first of Palou was a massive thing for him in his career, and you can probably predict Ericsson’s Curt response, delivered with a big smile, of course.

If there is a positive to withdraw from the situation, it is that even after a start of departure of the year, Ericsson moved into the top 10 of the championship and is two points behind the teammate Colton Herta, heading for a street track, which is generally a good format for Andretti.

But Ericsson is not yet quite ready to focus on Detroit.

What we can do is indicate some of the positive points to balance the negatives he highlighted, after having finished second in one of the largest races in the world, at the end of an exhausting race of 200 laps than a third of the 33 -cars’ field failed to finish.

“I’m really proud of the team, we really had a good month, a good solid month, a good qualification weekend,” said Ericsson.

“This race was a little strange. We started strong enough, I really felt comfortable with the first part of the race, then my car really went on, I really clung and that I was fighting to follow anyone, I felt, and we had to make a ton of changes.

“And then we had a bad start of holder who dropped us on the back of the field. At one point, we were the last in the tower.

“So, it really looked like a bad day, but it’s the cool thing with us and with the crew n ° 28, we continue to fight.

“We never continue to abandon, and we continue to fight and that is what we have done today.

“I had very good relays there in the second half of the race where I felt that the car came more to me and put us in the running, then the last stop was really good, good call to the strategy too. I am really proud of this fight.

“It stinks. The second is a good result, but here it is not a good result. Here you have to win.”

This insists at home what it is to finish second at Indy 500, in particular as a previous winner. All positive points tend to leave the window.

But in the context of not having the simplest walk in Andretti so far, and the Indy 500 from last year, there will be a lot to love Ericsson – in time.

And being beaten by Alex Palou in 2025 looks like an inevitability at this stage.