By Noah Poser, Staff Writer
From a young age, Théo Pourchaire was destined to become a racing driver, just as Luke Skywalker was destined to become a Jedi.
So it came as no surprise when Skywalker and later Pourchaire quickly rose through the ranks within their respective pursuits to the point where both were considered young prodigies, Skywalker in the art of the Force, and Pourchaire in his mastery of navigating the winding lefts and rights of European street circuits.
But what trait most links these two individuals, one fictional and the other quite real, together, is their resilience and the determination they show when the entire galaxy (or racing world) is seemingly working against them.
For Skywalker, that meant joining forces with the rebel alliance, while for Pourchaire, it means travelling to Indianapolis and enlisting the help of former driver and fellow Frenchman Simon Pagenaud in hopes of landing a full-time seat in INDYCAR.
It was in Indy where Pourchaire sat down and shared with me not only his admiration of Pagenuad, but also his love of racing, basketball and Star Wars too.
“My favorite Star Wars character, it’s a very good question actually,” Pourchaire said. “I’m a big fan. But I’m going to give an easy answer. I’m going to say Luke Skywalker.”
Perhaps the French racer, who won the 2023 Formula 2 championship at just 20 years old, was unaware of the parallels between his own story and that of his favorite Jedi.
Born in Grasse in southern France, Pourchaire has been racing since he was two years old and has been doing so competitively since he was seven.
After dominating the karting scene in France, he rapidly worked his way up to single seaters, competing in the French Formula 4 championship at 14 years old.
When he won the ADAC F4 championship a year later and made the jump to Formula 3 at 16, Formula 1 was squarely in his sights.
“F1 was always the dream,” Pourchaire said. “But you need everything to go right to go to F1. You need results, you need sponsors and you need a bit of luck. Even if you win championships, it doesn’t really matter.
“I produced some great results. I was F3 vice champion, just three points behind Oscar Piastri, the F1 points leader right now. In F2, I performed well in my three seasons, going from P5 to vice champion to champion. And yet, with all those great results, I couldn’t see an opportunity in F1, which was a bit sad.”
For years prior, Pourchaire had seemed destined for an F1 seat, having joined the Sauber Academy in 2019 as a 15-year-old. And when he won the F2 championship, it appeared as if it was a lock that he would eventually drive one of the team’s two cars.
But when it came time to replace incumbents Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu at the end of last season, Sauber passed over him not once, but twice, when it announced Nico Hülkenberg and 2024 F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto as its 2025 driver lineup.
Fast forward to the present day, with his F1 dream on pause, and Pourchaire, who is competing in European Le Mans this season, is left weighing his future prospects.
That’s where Pagenuad comes in.
“Simon is a legend for French racing drivers,” Pourchaire said. “He won the Indianapolis 500 and an INDYCAR championship, so since I was a young kid I’ve been looking up to him and wanting to have the same career as him because he’s won everything.
“I just want to maximize my chances, and I’m sure with Simon in my corner we will be able to find something that suits my abilities, whether it be one of the many good opportunities in INDYCAR or endurance racing.”
As he spent the 2024 season looking for work, Pourchaire was hoping for something, anything, really whatever opportunity he could find to jump back behind the wheel of a race car.
Then David Malukas suffered a wrist injury, and suddenly in need of a replacement driver, Zak Brown and Arrow McLaren came calling.
“Last year, I didn’t have much to do, so when McLaren called me it was the perfect time,” Pourchaire said. “It was the perfect opportunity for me so of course I said yes, of course, I’m ready to drive for you. At first it was to replace an injured driver, but the relationship between the team and myself was good so we decided to continue for a few more races.”
Then, just as he was with Sauber, he was replaced by a younger driver, this time in the form of Nolan Siegel.
And once again, after seeing his career go through another round of musical chairs, Pourchaire was the one left without a seat.
In the six races Pourchaire competed in during his brief stint in INDYCAR, he had fallen in love with the series, and the fans of the series had fallen in love with him.
“I just fell in love with this championship,” Pourchaire said. “I really love it. It’s an amazing championship with good drivers, good tracks and the Indy 500, which is the greatest race in the world, so hopefully I can race in it one day.
“Off the track, I think the fans are awesome. They even gave me a nickname after one race because my name is French and it’s a little tough to pronounce. So I got called ‘Teddy Porkchops’ straight away, which I really liked. The fans are a big part of what makes me want to come back here to INDYCAR one day.”
And while a return to the US and the INDYCAR series isn’t out of the question just yet for Pourchaire, he prefers to keep his options open for the time being.
In the meantime, he’s set out a new dream for himself, less in line with the one he had when he was first starting out as a racing driver, and more in line with that of a younger Théo Pourchaire, the motorsports fanatic.
“There’s not only Formula 1 in this world,” Pourchaire said. “I’ve always been passionate about motorsport and the greatest races in the world, like the Indy 500 and the 24 hours of Le Mans as well. Those are two races I really want to win one day.”
He then took a moment to remind everyone that despite not reaching F1, he still holds a win at F1’s most historic track.
“You know, I already won the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 2,” Pourchaire said. “But in my eyes it counts. It still counts. It’s more than most, so you know, if I could add the Indy 500 and the 24 hours of Le Mans to that, it could be my own kind of personal Triple Crown. That would be really awesome.”
And whether he achieves this dream within the next year, the next five years, the next 20 years or not at all, one thing is for certain.
He’ll be smiling throughout it all.
“I’m the same guy off the track that I am on the track,” Pourchaire said. “I’m a really simple guy who likes to smile a lot. Sometimes people tell me ‘Théo, you’re always smiling’ even if I’m having a bad day at the track.
“But I’m always smiling because I always have something to smile about.”
Something fans may not know about Pourchaire is that he’s very up to date on the American sports scene.
While he says motorsport was and will always be his first love, and he holds a special place in his heart for French soccer club Marseille, basketball is the one sport outside of racing that he particularly enjoys.
“I’ve always really liked American sports,” Pourchaire said. “I’m always on TV or on my phone watching something about sports, whether it’s motorsports, basketball, American football, soccer or boxing. But I love sports and I’m a huge basketball fan especially. I love the Golden State Warriors and I’m a big Steph Curry fan.”
It was through his fandom of American sports that he grew comfortable racing in the US, despite growing up almost exclusively in Europe.
“The goal at the moment is to have a full-time drive next year,” Pourchaire said. “Whether it’s INDYCAR, World Endurance Championship or even F1, I’m looking forward to having as many opportunities as possible to be in the car. When I got dropped from the team in INDYCAR, I had nothing and I don’t want to be in that position again.
“I just want to drive and do what I love to do, which is drive race cars all around the world. That was always the ultimate dream growing up, so we’ll see what happens.”
And perhaps to simply cover his bases, Pourchaire, aka ‘Teddy Porkchops’, aka one of Luke Skywalker’s (and Steph Curry’s) biggest fans, made an appeal to INDYCAR one final time
“I don’t close any doors, but the thing I love about INDYCAR is that the championship is so competitive,” Pourchaire said. “The atmosphere is awesome and I don’t know why, but I prefer the atmosphere here more than almost anywhere else, especially at the Indy 500 and here at IMS, which is such a beautiful place, so who knows what will happen.
“But as I said, I won’t close doors to anything.”
This is the first installment in a series of features focused on drivers who have made the leap from the Formula 2 ranks to INDYCAR. These pieces will detail various parts of their respective racing journeys and hopefully give a glimpse into some of the key events that went into shaping their careers.