Marcus Armstrong

Marcus John Armstrong (born 29 July 2000) is a New Zealand motor racing driver currently competing in the IndyCar series, driving the No. 11 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Born in Christchurch, Armstrong began karting in 2010, winning all his major titles in New Zealand from 2011 to 2014.

Armstrong started single-seaters in 2014, and in the following year won his only single-seater title to date in the 2017 Italian F4 Championship whilst becoming runner-up in the 2017 ADAC Formula 4 Championship.

While still karting, Armstrong graduated to single seaters in 2014 in the 2014–15 season of New Zealand Formula Ford Championship, ending seventh in the standings.

He did not achieve much in international competitions, placing a highest of 12th during the Karting World Championship in the KF2 category in 2015.

In November 2015, Armstrong tested a Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 car in 2015 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 post-season test.

In an article by Motorsport.com, Armstrong was ranked third of the most exciting karting talents of 2016.

In 2016, Armstrong once again diversified his karting with stints in BRDC British Formula 3 and the two Formula Renault 2.0 series.

In the latter series, he competed as a guest driver during the final round at Estoril, and finished ninth and tenth.

In November 2016, Armstrong was among five drivers invited to join the Ferrari Driver Academy and was confirmed as a member the following month.

He was a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy between 2017 and 2021.

That same month, he was confirmed to race in the 2017 Toyota Racing Series with M2 Competition.

Armstrong won the season opener on his debut, but retired in the third race due to a collision.

His next would come at the third round in Hampton during the first race, but again failed to finish the third race after touching with Richard Verschoor.

A further win and two second places in the final round saw Armstrong managed fourth in the championship.

In February 2017, it was announced Armstrong would race in both the ADAC F4 and Italian F4 championships with Prema Powerteam.

Armstrong had a relatively slow start to the season, scoring three third-places and two non-scoring finishes across the opening two rounds.

The next round at Vallelunga saw Armstrong claim his maiden win of the year From then, Armstrong's form had been stellar, winning three more times including appearing on the podium at all races during the second Mugello round.

In the Monza season finale, Armstrong finished second in the first race, which was enough to claim the title with two races to spare.

Armstrong partook in all races, as the races did not clash with his Italian F4 campaign.

Armstrong had two non-scoring finishes in the first two rounds.

However, he bounced back and took his first ADAC F4 win at the Red Bull Ring and two more podium finishes there.

His podium streak continued towards Oscbersleben, scoring another win and a second place.

Another win at the Nürburgring hauled him into championship contention, but eventually lost out to eventual champion and future F2 teammate Jüri Vips by a mere 4.5 points, and Armstrong settled as vice-champion.

He stepped to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship in 2018, ending 5th.

For 2018, Armstrong returned to the Toyota Racing Series with M2 Competition.

Armstrong started his season in perfect fashion, taking third in the first race and winning the other two, though those wins would be the only one of the season.

Armstrong continued his podium streak in Teretonga and Hampton, which increased his lead to 41 points.

However, he only yielded one podium in the next five races, bringing the gap down to ten points over second-placed Robert Shwartzman and 23 points to Richard Verschoor.

With four laps to go after a safety car restart, Armstrong had a mechanical failure whilst leading, and dropped to seventh at the flag.

This was meant that Shwartzman and Verschoor dropped Armstrong to third in the championship, the former winning the championship.

Overall, Armstrong lost the title by 15 points.

Armstrong continued his collaboration with Prema, graduating to the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, alongside fellow Ferrari juniors Robert Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou.

He scored a podium in just his second race at Pau, and a second place during the second round at the Hungaroring.

His first win came at the Norisring and also capitalised by claiming two more podiums during the round, which saw him take the lead of the standings.

He continued his championship lead for the next two rounds, which yielded two podiums.

The championship merged into the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2019, and Armstrong became runner-up to teammate Robert Shwartzman.

He competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship between 2020 and 2022, and was the 2019 Formula 3 runner-up.

He was promoted to the 2020 Formula 2 Championship with ART Grand Prix but a difficult season saw him finish 13th.

He also finished in the same position in the following year with DAMS, and came 13th again in the 2022 Formula 2 Championship with Hitech Grand Prix before making the switch to IndyCar.