‘Tell Penske to f**k themselves’ – The saga behind McLaren driver’s rant

A “Tell Penske to go f**k themselves” radio message was just the latest installment in bubbling IndyCar animosity between Arrow McLaren and Team Penske.

It’s mainly between two of their drivers – Nolan Siegel at McLaren and Penske’s Scott McLaughlin – but the ‘beef’ hasn’t stopped there.

After Siegel’s outburst, Arrow McLaren felt the need to issue a statement condemning its young driver’s behaviour. Here’s how the story unfolded and why its roots are in a bigger conflict that’s more than just the two drivers.

What happened?

On lap 83 of the Gateway race last weekend Siegel was desperate to stay on the lead lap. Leader McLaughlin dived to the inside on the exit of Turn 2 to make a move and Siegel pushed McLaughlin down the track and below the white line.

IndyCar’s rulebook states you can’t make a move in defence in reaction to another driver’s attack.

Siegel was given a drive-through for contravening this rule which is labelled ‘blocking’, and is even more strictly enforced on ovals to avoid massive accidents from drivers being too aggressive in defence.

This came a race after Detroit, where McLaughlin hit Siegel while trying to overtake him at Turn 1. A whole X back and forth then ensued between McLaughlin and McLaren’s team principal Tony Kanaan. More on that shortly.

After the move at Gateway, Siegel cursed repeatedly on the radio, and this was brought to the attention of many fans via an onboard video shared by the excellent IndyCar account, @indy44, on Tuesday.

In reaction to the penalty for blocking, Siegel said: “Bulls**t, f***ing bulls**t, absolutely not.

“Absolutely not, you f***ing take me out last race and he gets to f***ing continue. No. F**k that s**t. Tell Penske to go f**k themselves.”

In a later discussion with his team, Siegel added: “I want you to talk to them about that penalty. That’s f***ing bulls**t”, to which his team replies, “10-4, we’ll deal with it after the race”.

“Deal with it right f**ing now,” Siegel concludes.

What has happened in the aftermath

Siegel has apologised via a video on his Instagram account, McLaughlin has confirmed he and Siegel have cleared the air, and McLaren issued a statement condemning the language and nature of Siegel’s tirade.

“At Arrow McLaren, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism, respect and sportsmanship – on and off the track,” the statement says. 

“The language expressed over our radio during this past race weekend does not reflect who we are as a team.

“We do not condone that behaviour. We’ve addressed it directly with Nolan, and he is taking responsibility for his actions. Accountability is a core value at Arrow McLaren, and we expect every team member to represent our partners, fans and organisation with integrity.

“Additionally, we expect our fans and online community to act with respect and civility, and we will not tolerate hate, abuse or discrimination within our social media platforms. It is vital that we collectively maintain a safe and welcoming community for all involved.”

What’s the history here?

You could argue this stretches back to last year when McLaren ditched David Malukas, signed Theo Pourchaire and then dropped him for Siegel in June.

McLaughlin sent what I can only assume was a lighthearted – but also feisty – tweet, but it was followed up with a harsh rebuttal from then McLaren sporting director Kanaan.

He referenced the extremely sore topic of Team Penske illegally using push to pass on the restarts in St Petersburg 2024, with Josef Newgarden and McLaughlin – a scandal that resulted in their disqualification.

Fast forward to Detroit at the previous round and Kanaan shared a video of McLaughlin hitting Siegel captioned “Oh, OK then”.

McLaughlin followed that up as below.

It’s clear McLaughlin is hinting that Siegel wasn’t braking late enough with the implication being that he’s not fast/aggressive enough or as McLaughlin is.

This really seemed to annoy Kanaan, who pointed to McLaughlin crashing out on the formation lap of the Indianapolis 500, something McLaughlin had called one of the worst moments of his life.

Kanaan also referenced Penske firing its team boss before the Indy 500 – because of a qualifying scandal where Penske had illegally modified rear crash structures on its cars.

It seems McLaughlin and Siegel are constantly finding each other on track and it usually opens more doors for beef, although McLaughlin’s acknowledgement that he and Siegel talked it out might end this one.

At least until they get together again.

Siegel has been retained for 2026 so there’s a good chance it will happen again, although it seems more likely when McLaughlin is lapping Siegel than while battling on merit at the moment with the latter 21st in the championship.

The Race says

Obviously I can’t condone foul and aggressive language, you do have to consider these comments from Siegel came in the heat of the moment and under the extreme pressure of competing at the highest sporting level.

Putting aside the fact that Siegel deserved his penalty – although a drive-through is harsh for only a small move down to squeeze McLaughlin, blocking isn’t open to interpretation really – he clearly wasn’t expecting his radio to be broadcast and is fighting through a dire season where nothing seems to be going his way.

It feels to me that people are using this clip as an excuse to hate on Siegel or Penske or whatever other agenda they have rather than focusing too much on what is said. It’s a good job Siegel didn’t do this in Formula 1, by the way!

Anyway, again, this isn’t condoning anything, but I’m sure if you listened to the radios of all the drivers at every race you’d hear an outburst like this.

Harsh criticism is only likely to force IndyCar to stop broadcasting radio, which is a fascinating and sometimes crucial element of following and understanding the championship.

You have to take publicised radio warts and all.

Source: The Race