2023 Grand Prix of Toronto preview

For those who don’t know, I’m a massive fan of motorsports. NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Supercars, rally, drag racing, endurance, I watch a bit of everything.

In my humble opinion, IndyCar is the best racing product out there right now. Drivers come from many different backgrounds. The series races on a diverse schedule of short ovals, superspeedways, road courses, and street courses. And every weekend produces incredibly close racing.

IndyCar has everything you could ask for in a racing series. The best part? It comes to Toronto this weekend.

The Honda Indy Toronto event is the only race outside of the U.S. currently on the IndyCar calendar. It returned in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to COVID, with veteran Scott Dixon picking up his fourth career win in Toronto.

Here’s a quick preview for the weekend, featuring a few contenders to win, a handful of others to keep an eye on, and the support series you’ll catch if you attend this weekend.

Alex Palou

Palou came into last year’s race in Toronto shrouded in controversy after the dueling announcements that both Chip Ganassi and McLaren had signed the Spaniard for 2023.

A year later, the 26-year-old is in the midst of one of the most dominant stretches we’ve seen in recent memory in IndyCar. Palou has won three straight races and has finished in the top five of eight straight. The season opener at St. Pete is the lone race he hasn’t finished in the top five this season, and even then he still finished eighth.

And he’s done so with Chip Ganassi Racing - the very team it appeared he would be departing this time last year.

2022 marked the first time Palou raced on the streets of Toronto. He started 22nd after an engine issue in qualifying and recovered to finish 6th.

Palou is showing no signs of slowing down in his pursuit of a second championship. If he avoids issues in qualifying this time around, he’s a serious contender for an insane fourth-straight victory.

Romain Grosjean

Can Grosjean finally secure his maiden IndyCar win this weekend in Toronto? If he maintains his qualifying form on street courses, he’ll have an excellent chance to do so.

Starting up front is vital to success on the narrow, short Toronto street circuit. The past three winners have started on the front row, with Simon Pagenaud converting from pole in 2019.

No driver has been better in qualifying on street circuits in 2023. Grosjean won the pole at the opener in St. Pete (and could’ve won if not for his crash with Scott McLaughlin), and qualified third at both Long Beach and Detroit.

Grosjean’s struggled to convert promising performances into consistent results in his IndyCar career. After the season-opening pole and back-to-back runner-up finishes at Long Beach and Barber, Grosjean has since finished outside of the top 10 entirely in five straight races, which has put into question his future at Andretti past 2023.

The 37-year-old had difficulty in his first race in Toronto last year too, hitting the wall in practice and finishing 16th on Sunday.

That being said, should Grosjean qualify as well as he has all season on the city streets, he’ll have a strong shot at getting his season back on track in Toronto.

Alexander Rossi

Rossi qualified fourth in Toronto last year and was running fourth…until his now teammate Felix Rosenqvist pushed him wide and into the Turn 3 wall just after the halfway mark.

The 31-year-old has had success in Toronto, finishing on the podium twice in five total races here. Now with McLaren and with two top-five finishes already this season on street circuits, Rossi can contend for his first win with his new team this weekend.

Rossi has flown under the radar but has been very consistent this season. He’s finished top 10 in six straight races, a streak matched or exceeded only by Palou and Scott Dixon, who are first and second in the championship.

Rosenqvist finished on the podium in last year’s race in the No. 7 Chevrolet, don’t be surprised to see Rossi do the same in 2023.

Others to keep an eye on

• Sophomore Christian Lundgaard paces the RLL stable and moved into the top 10 of the IndyCar standings with a top-five finish at Mid-Ohio.

Lundgaard and Graham Rahal had impressive weekends in Toronto last year, the 21-year-old Danish driver could be in the mix for back-to-back top-five runs.

• Former Toronto race winner Simon Pagenaud won’t be in the field as he’s yet to be medically cleared after his terrifying crash at Road America. Replacing him in Toronto is Tom Blomqvist, who makes his IndyCar debut fresh off capturing the GTP pole and win in Bowmanville at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The 29-year-old tested with Meyer Shank at Sebring in October, so this isn’t quite his first foray into the series. Expectations should be low, of course, but Blomqvist is rapid and will almost certainly be a full-time driver for MSR sooner rather than later. I’m excited to see his IndyCar career begin this weekend, because it almost certainly won’t be the last of him we’ll see.

• Two rookies were mightily impressive in qualifying in Toronto last year: David Malukas and Callum Ilott, who started fifth and seventh respectively. Both are worth keeping tabs on to see if they can repeat those performances, but the rookie to watch in 2023 is Marcus Armstrong.

The 22-year-old former Ferrari prospect has gotten his feet wet in IndyCar this year with Chip Ganassi, running all of the road course races in the No. 11 Honda. Armstrong’s been formidable and consistent, grabbing top 10s at Long Beach, Detroit, and Mid-Ohio, as well as finishing 11th in the opener at St. Pete.

The theme here? Three street courses and the most recent race. Armstrong will hope to be the next rookie to find success on Saturday in Toronto, and hopefully convert that into a good result on Sunday.

Support series

For those attending the event this weekend, there are plenty of support series sessions worth checking out too.

• The highlight of the non-IndyCar schedule comes on Friday as the Pinty’s Series takes to the city streets. Canada’s NASCAR series is a staple of the Honda Indy Toronto weekend, acting as the main event on the free-to-attend Friday.

19-year-old Treyten Lapcevich is taking the series by storm through four races in 2023. The young gun has won three of four events and finished runner-up at Autodrome Chaudiere - where he led 273 of 300 laps.

But it’s been the veterans who’ve dominated in Toronto, with Kevin Lacroix, Alex Tagliani, and Andrew Ranger being the only drivers in the field to have won on the streets of Toronto.

Expect Lapcevich and that trio to be in contention, as well as Alex Guenette - who won at Trois-Rivieres last year and recently finished 15th in the Xfinity Series race on the streets of Chicago.

• USF 2000 - the third-rung of the IndyCar ladder - is the IndyCar support series on display this weekend. Be sure to keep an eye on Canadian rookie Mac Clark from Campbellville, Ontario, who makes his debut in Toronto on a hot streak having captured four consecutive podiums.

• Radicals and the Sports Car Championship Canada round out the weekend schedule.

If you’re in Toronto at all from Friday through Sunday, I can’t recommend attending the event enough. I went for the first time in 2022 and had an incredible time. The entire Friday schedule is free to attend with an option to donate to Make A Wish, you simply can’t beat that.

And if you can’t attend the race, be sure to check out the Pinty’s Series race live on TSN+ Friday, as well as IndyCar qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday, both of which will be on TSN.