Louis Foster makes his feeling known after first 'proper' IndyCar race at Long Beach
Louis Foster was the lead Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver at the Long Beach Grand Prix. The 2024 Indy NXT champion had a strong showing at the street circuit and admitted that the race around the sub-two-mile track was his first proper IndyCar race in his career.
The Briton was an Andretti junior driver for the past few years, but joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing after there was no spot available for him at Andretti. However, his start to the 2025 season was a torrid one for the 21-year-old.
Louis Foster was one of the drivers to retire out of the race in a lap 1 caution, which caught out two-time champion Will Power and Arrow McLaren driver Nolan Siegel. Despite the initial setback, there was more to come for the young driver who utilized the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix to dwell in with the bigger racing cars and delivered his best result at Long Beach a few weeks later.
Reflecting on his outing at the Long Beach Grand Prix, Foster asserted how it was his first proper race in the IndyCar realm as he made several moves up the grid and finished 16th, and said (via louis-foster.com):
"We gained four spots on the day. It’s obviously good to move upwards. We had a decent start and passed a few cars. The middle stages weren’t our best, but towards the end, that’s where we really did a good job. I managed to get past quite a few cars; did quite a few overtakes today and I’m pretty happy with that result."
"Had we started farther up, we would have had a better end result. Realistically I think the only thing we can blame for having a P16 was not having the best qualifying session so we will continue to work on that. To get my first solid, proper INDYCAR race under my belt and to do a good job is something I’m happy about.”
While Louis Foster claimed RLL's highest position at the Long Beach Grand Prix, this begs the question, where were his much-experienced teammates in the 90-lap event?
How did Louis Foster's teammates' race play out at the Long Beach IndyCar Grand Prix?
Though the team's star driver, Graham Rahal, started the race in 16th, he suffered a fuel shortage mid-way through the race that caused him to lose heaps of positions. This aided Louis Foster to get past him and take over the 16th spot.
Meanwhile, Devlin DeFrancesco had a lonely race at Long Beach. His pace was not strong as he was unable to overtake Rahal, his teammate, who had to cut down his fuel consumption by 16 percent every lap at one point. This has led the Canadian to continue his dream of getting inside the top 10 at an IndyCar race.
All while Louis Foster makes progress in the series and bagged his best-ever IndyCar result after a series of strong moves at the street track.