Scott McLaughlin (racing driver)

McLaughlin began driving karts when he was six and racing when he was seven, and represented New Zealand in the Rotax Max Challenge held in Italy,[6][7] but had long aspired to race V8s, and was given a trial in one at Stone Brothers Racing while doing work experience there.[3]

In 2010, McLaughlin confirmed that he would be racing for Stone Brothers Racing in the 2010 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at just 16 years of age, becoming the youngest ever V8 Supercar driver.[3] He didn't make his debut until the second round of the series, due to him not having the appropriate competition licence.[8]

McLaughlin won his first race in the series at Queensland Raceway in 2011[9] before going on to win the title in 2012.[10]

McLaughlin drove a Holden VE Commodore in the 2012 season of the V8 SuperTourer Series. He won six races for MPC Motorsport on his way to becoming the inaugural series champion.[11]

McLaughlin made his debut in the Supercars Championship at the Sandown 500 in 2012, as a co-driver to Jonathon Webb at Tekno Autosports. The pair performed well at both Sandown and Bathurst, finishing in tenth place at Sandown and in sixth place at Bathurst. McLaughlin also drove at the Sydney 500 for Garry Rogers Motorsport after Alexandre Prémat was forced out of the Sunday race due to extreme heat exhaustion the day before.[12] McLaughlin was later signed by Garry Rogers Motorsport as a full-time driver for the 2013 season.[10]

McLaughlin continued with Garry Rogers Motorsport into 2014, under its new identity as Volvo Polestar Racing (later Volvo Cyan Racing). At 1 March 2014, McLaughlin scored a podium finish in Volvo's return to the series at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide. Four race wins at Barbagallo, Sydney Motorsport Park, and 2 wins at Phillip Island. He finished 5th in the standings.

For 2017, McLaughlin moved from Garry Rogers Motorsport to DJR Team Penske to partner Fabian Coulthard. Throughout the year, McLaughlin was dominant in qualifying; acquiring 16 pole positions. Along with a string of strong results, McLaughlin would find himself in the box seat for a maiden championship title. After starting strongly in the final round at Newcastle, a chaotic second race saw McLaughlin pick up three penalties which would eventually contribute toward him narrowly missing out on the title to Jamie Whincup.

In 2018, McLaughlin continued to race with DJR Team Penske. He won seven out of the 34 races, winning in Melbourne, Phillip Island, Barbagallo, Hidden Valley and Ipswich. McLaughlin finished third at Bathurst alongside Alexandre Prémat in which was the Ford Falcon's final appearance at Mount Panorama. On 4 November, at Pukekohe Park Raceway, McLaughlin won race twenty-nine to join compatriot Shane van Gisbergen in winning the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy. In Newcastle, McLaughlin won race thirty (after van Gisbergen was stripped of his victory following a pit lane violation, demoting him to fifth) and finished second in race thirty-one to become the 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars champion.

In 2019, DJR Team Penske debuted the Ford Mustang, which replaced the Falcon. McLaughlin was able to continue his dominance with the team, with 18 wins, which broke the record for most wins in a single year, 15 pole positions, 18 fastest laps, and 22 podiums to his name. He became the first ever driver to claim the Darwin Triple Crown, after winning the first race, claiming pole for the second race and winning the second race. On 13 October 2019. McLaughlin finally won Bathurst for the first time, with Alexandre Prémat as Scott's co-driver. Two weeks after this he had the biggest crash of his career, a 43g impact at the Gold Coast. He then had to drive a new car, due to chassis damage from the crash, for the last two rounds and was still able to successfully defend his championship title, with a round to go at Sandown.

Speculation around McLaughlin moving to one of Penske's other motorsports programs began in 2019, when Penske team president Tim Cindric and McLaughlin met in Australia to discuss McLaughlin's future in the Penske organization. Cindric originally envisioned moving McLaughlin to Penske's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program to race alongside Helio Castroneves in Penske's Acura Daytona Prototype International entry and even potentially competing in the World Endurance Championship. McLaughlin however expressed interest in moving to Penske's team in the Indycar Series. He stated his primary motivators were the challenge of racing open wheel race cars, his long time goal of racing in the Indianapolis 500, and competing against his childhood hero and fellow New Zealander Scott Dixon.[13] Cindric was skeptical about moving McLaughlin to Indycar as McLaughlin had not driven an open wheel racecar since he raced in Formula Ford during his early teens. McLaughlin changed Cindric's mind by altering his strength and conditioning regimen along with undertaking private simulator time that to show he had the talent and physical fitness to move from the mechanical grip reliant Supercars to the downforce reliant Dallara DW12, all during the middle of the 2019 Supercars Championship. [14]

In January 2020, he tested a Team Penske IndyCar at Sebring International Raceway.[15] Team Penske driver Will Power hailed McLaughlin as a phenomenal driver after the test.[16] In February 2020 McLaughlin completed his first laps on an oval during Team Penske's test at Texas Motor Speedway, with reigning Indycar Series champion and future teammate Josef Newgarden hailing McLaughlin's ability to quickly adapt to the demands of racing the DW12 on ovals. [17] On 5 February, Penske announced that McLaughlin will race a 4th Team Penske entry at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, McLaughlin was unable to travel to the United States for that race. On 17 September, Team Penske announced that McLaughlin will instead make his IndyCar debut at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on 25 October.[18] The day before the race he posted on his personal Instagram feed that he signed a multi year contract with Penske to compete full time in the series.[19] On January 25, 2021 McLaughlin and Penske announced that PPG Paints would be the primary sponsor for most of his entries in the Indycar series.[20]

• 
  McLaughlin placed 4th in the 2011 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series driving a Ford BF Falcon (pictured above at Queensland Raceway) & a Ford FG Falcon).
• 
  McLaughlin placed 10th in the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship driving a Holden VF Commodore (pictured above at the Adelaide Parklands Circuit).
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  McLaughlin placed fifth in the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship driving a Volvo S60 (pictured at the 2014 Coates Hire Ipswich 400).
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  McLaughlin preparing for the third race of the 2015 Sydney Motorsport Park Super Sprint.
• 
  McLaughlin placed 2nd in the 2017 Supercars Championship driving a Ford FG X Falcon (Pictured above at the Newcastle Street Circuit)
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  McLaughlin at the 2018 Newcastle 500, the event at which he secured his maiden championship.
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  McLaughlin at the 2019 Newcastle 500, the event which he secured his second championship

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

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* Season still in progress.