Theo Pourchaire aimed to become the Formula 2 champion when he joined the series in 2021 at the age of 17. He had a solid first season with two wins and improved in his second season, finishing second in the overall standings. By then, he was seen as a top talent expected to excel in 2023. However, Pourchaire won only one race that year. Despite this, he was leading the championship going into the final race, thanks to his consistent results throughout the season. His main rival, Frederik Vesti, gave him a tough challenge but Pourchaire ultimately won the title by just 9 points. The championship trophy meant, that Pourchaire had to leave the series because the rules don’t allow for the winner to enter again. Little did he know that was the start of a way downhill for him.

Super Formula

With no available seats in Formula 1 in 2024, Pourchaire decided to move to the competitive Super Formula series in Japan. This series had worked for drivers like Pierre Gasly or Liam Lawson before they moved on to bigger competitions like F1, so at first it seemed like a good choice for Pourchaire.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned. Pourchaire struggled in his first race weekend, failing to get through Q1 in qualifying and finishing last among the running cars. Even that Super Formula is a tough competition, especially in a new country with a different language, it wasn’t a start to the season as he pictured and it was obvious that it wasn’t the right choice at all.

IndyCar

Clearly, even Pourchaire himself sensed that Super Formula was not a good fit for him, as he began seeking opportunities elsewhere after his initial race. However, at the start of the season, finding a new drive is a tough challenge, given that most teams have already finalized their line-ups. Pourchaire did get quite lucky because at the same time the McLaren IndyCar team faced an unexpected issue when their driver, David Malukas, got himself injured and was unlikely to return soon. McLaren and Pourchaire found a mutually beneficial arrangement, with Pourchaire initially joining as a temporary replacement but later being confirmed for the rest of the season. Pourchaire's performance in IndyCar has been overall decent, with several top-ten finishes. Despite facing challenges, including threats from fans of Agustin Canapino and facing a controversial situation, McLaren stood by him. However, in a surprising turn of events, McLaren right after decided to replace Pourchaire with Nolan Siegel with no official explanation provided for this decision. Later on McLaren called him back only to replace Alexander Rossi in the streets of Toronto. At this moment he is left with no guaranteed seat in any motosport series.

Pourchaire is very unhappy about the situation with Formula 1 as he seems basically invisible to any of the F1 teams. It gets even worse with Oliver Bearman joining the series next year, despite he finished way behind Pourchaire in his championship-winning season.