Alexander Rossi names former teammate Felix Rosenqvist his top reel-sharing buddy after wife Kelly

Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist raced for Arrow McLaren during the 2023 IndyCar season and became good friends. The 2016 Indy 500 winner recently came out and named the Meyer Shank Racing driver as his top reel-sharing friend after his wife.

Rossi and Rosenqvist have had their fair share of tight battles and crashes on track. The Swedish driver went on the inside of Rossi's Andretti Global car at the 2022 Indy Toronto, which forced the Indy 500 winner wide and into the barrier. The duo was also involved in a tight battle for the podium at the 2023 Detroit GP during their time as teammates.

However, the crashes and rivalry don't seem to have an effect on Rosenqvist and Rossi’s friendship off the track. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver recently came out on the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast and asked the hosts whether their best friends in life are the ones they shared the most reels with.

After getting a positive response about the same from the host (Tim Durham), Alexander Rossi asked,

“I mean aside from Kelly (Mossop), it is Tim (Durham), James (Hinchcliffe), Conor (Daly), our friends Steven and Deepu. Who would you think is next?” “Okay, I'm going to bet it's somebody you've been a teammate with, Rosenqvist?” replied Tim. “The amount of communication we have per day is borderline insane. He is the second-most person that I send things to, next to my wife,” responded Rossi. When asked about the genre of the reels, Rossi said, “ I'm not going to tell you that. Every once in a while, we'll cross each other in the paddock or sit next to each other in a driver's meeting, and we solely just communicate based on, ‘How about that one I sent on Tuesday or whatever’ and then we laugh in person.”

Felix Rosenqvist raced for Arrow McLaren from 2021-2023 before moving to Meyer Shank Racing for the 2024 season. Alexander Rossi joined Arrow McLaren in 2023 after his tenure at Andretti Global. The two drivers were teammates for just one season, where the Swedish driver finished 12th in the championship and Rossi finished 9th.

---

Felix Rosenqvist's reaction to the incident with Alexander Rossi at the 2023 Detroit GP

Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist ran P3 and P4, respectively, at the 2023 Detroit GP with two laps to go. The Swedish driver made a desperate dive-bomb move into Turn 3 for the final podium spot and made contact with Rossi. Rosenqvist passed his teammate with Rossi ending up wide and into the marbles, losing a spot to Scott Dixon.

Speaking about the incident after the race, Rosenqvist said (via Pit Debrief),

“I mean, we race hard, but I think we also race fair. Obviously we like each other. We don’t have any intentions to put each other in the wall. But, yeah, it was tight. I think the move wasn’t really high-risk. I was completely alongside him into three. Yeah, just gets tight, man. It’s so close. He squeezed me a little bit on entry, I squeezed him a little bit on exit.”

When Alexander Rossi was asked about the incident that put him out of podium contention, he suggested that the same would be discussed internally at Arrow McLaren.

Edited by Luke Koshi