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Scott McLaughlin is conscious of the need to ‘step up’ in his bid to win the 2023 IndyCar Series title.
The three-time Supercars champion finished fourth on a countback in 2022, his second full season in IndyCar, picking up his first three race wins in the process.
His end to the campaign was the best in the field, but McLaughlin is not resting on his laurels.
“I know that we made a massive step personally for me last year,” said the Team Penske driver.
“That was due to a number of things clicking, working out really good.
“But now what we know of IndyCar racing, you just need to continue stepping up a little. We need to continue to build as a team, and for myself.
“I’ve certainly looked at negatives that I can improve on. Hopefully that bodes well to repeat our win at the season-opening race at St Petersburg, and for the rest of the season.”
The Grand Prix of St Petersburg takes place this weekend, with Practice 1 on Friday afternoon (15:00 local time/ET; Saturday 07:00 AEDT).
However, it is not just the Florida street course where McLaughlin is competing in coming days.
On Wednesday (local time), he pairs up with Zach Johnson in Wednesday’s (local time) Pro-Am tournament at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
McLaughlin will even count his race engineer, Ben Bretzman, as his caddy for the event at the Bay Hill Course.
Penske takes an unchanged driver line-up into the 2023 IndyCar season, comprised also of 2022 champion Will Power in Car #12 and two-time champion Josef Newgarden in Car #2.
Teeing off at 8:40am tomorrow morning on the 10th with my pro @ZachJohnsonPGA ! Very Excited 😊 @APinv
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) March 1, 2023
