Tony Kanaan 'proud' of his Arrow McLaren prodigy Nolan Siegel after qualifying brilliance at Barber

In the Arrow McLaren trio, the IndyCar realm often noticed the pace difference between the team's star drivers and novice Nolan Siegel. However, at the qualifying for the Alabama Grand Prix, the 20-year-old turned the intra-team battle picture upside down, which led team principal Tony Kanaan to assert that he was proud of the young driver.

Siegel made his debut in IndyCar last year with one-off appearances with Dale Coyne Racing and Juncos Hollinger Racing. While his IndyCar venture had grown stale, Arrow McLaren signed the 20-year-old to replace then-reigning FIA F2 champion Theo Pourchaire at the team.

The 20-year-old's inexperience was taken into account while assessing his performances in comparison to his teammates, and he was signed on for the 2025 season. Tony Kanaan had been witnessing the youngster's performance under his wing at the British team and was overjoyed when Nolan Siegel made it into the Fast 6 during qualifying for the Alabama Grand Prix.

Moreover, he was the sole papaya driver to make it into the Fast 6, which made the Brazilian proud of his achievement, as he said (via Frontstretch Open Wheel):

"I mean sitting outside in the pit lane, obviously he has been my project. I was pretty proud. I think it's some of those joys that as as a race car driver I tried to get the thrill on the timing stand, proud of him. Great job by the team, obviously would like to have seen Christian [Lundgaard] and Pato [O'Ward] a little bit further up, but we're all there together in the mix." (1:43 onwards)

"But Nolan put a perfect qualifying lap for the car that he got today," Kanaan added.

Siegel has Christian Lundgaard and Pato O'Ward for company as they qualified seventh and eighth, respectively.

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Nolan Siegel reflects on his top-six qualifying effort at the Alabama Grand Prix

Nolan Siegel at the INDYCAR Indy 500 Open Testing - Source: Getty

With most people being centered around the Arrow McLarens of Lundgaard and O'Ward, no one had anticipated that the 20-year-old driver would make it into the Fast 6. Even Siegel himself was in this camp, as he later revealed.

However, he detailed why he was able to make it into the Fast 6, despite a close grid, as he said (via McLaren):

"I think it was just execution to be honest. Going into Qualifying, we didn't expect to be in the Firestone Fast 6... We didn't get ahead of ourselves and executed everything really well. That's what it takes."

Nolan Siegel has had three underwhelming races in the 2025 season so far. At the season opener in St. Petersburg, he got out on lap 1 after a collision with Will Power.

The Thermal Club and Long Beach races were not good either, as he finished close to the backmarkers, making his good start to the Alabama Grand Prix weekend a fresh breath of air in his camp.