Had Andretti’s plan worked out, Herta would have moved to F1 once granted an FIA super license, replaced in Andretti Autosport’s IndyCar squad by its Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood. Instead, Herta has remained in the #26 car which he drove to three wins last season, and Kirkwood will spend his rookie season at AJ
IndyCar
The 21-year-old Mexican finished third in last year’s championship, just a year after claiming fourth, and the 2018 Indy Lights champion also nailed his first two wins in IndyCar. But the second half of the season saw O’Ward struggling to find a set-up that didn’t overwork his rear tyres on road courses and lose him
Vincent Joseph Granatelli, son of charismatic STP promoter Andy Granatelli, was a crew chief when STP ran the famous turbine cars, and was also involved in the STP team’s brief flirtation in Formula 1, which saw Mario Andretti score a podium in a March 701. But Vince truly emerged from the shadow of his father
After finishing second and third in the IndyCar championship in 2018 and 2019 respectively, Rossi has suffered over the past two seasons, collecting a total of six podium finishes and taking ninth and 10th in the end-of-season points tallies. Over the same period, Herta has scored four wins and been third and fifth in points,
Calderon has been announced as the third Foyt driver in all 12 road and street courses on the 2022 IndyCar schedule. The Colombian has only had one day of testing – at Mid-Ohio last July – and will have just three more before the season starts at the end of February. But she feels that her
Kirkwood arrives in IndyCar with a phenomenally strong reputation from Road to Indy’s junior open-wheel categories, the first driver to claim the championship in USF2000, Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights. However, Andretti Autosport, with whom he raced in Indy Lights, were unable to create a slot for him in IndyCar, after Michael Andretti’s Formula
The Indy Lights champion ran 75 laps of the Sebring Raceway’s 1.7-mile short course on Tuesday and ended the session content that the team is making strong progress in terms of dampers for street courses, and that Chevrolet, too, is making strides in driveability. This was Kirkwood’s first test with the Chevrolet-powered AJ Foyt team,
The 41-year-old New Zealander scored just one win last year and finished fourth in the championship, only the third time he has slipped outside the top three since 2006, in a remarkable run for the Chip Ganassi Racing legend. He was unfortunate that his strategy in the second Texas race stumbled due to an unfortunately-timed
Most drivers who have raced in the United States will vouch for Road America as one of the most thrilling road courses the nation has to offer. Many liken the 4.04-mile track located near Wisconsin’s Elkhart Lake to Belgium’s sprawling Spa-Francorchamps. Among them is Bruno Junqueira, for whom Road America has added meaning as a
The seven-time NASCAR Cup champion had a predictably tough baptism to single-seater racing last year with Chip Ganassi Racing, managing a qualifying peak of 21st and a best finish of 17th. This year Johnson expands his schedule to take in all rounds on the calendar, including ovals on which he built his career in NASCAR.
Penske has racked up 18 wins in the IndyCar blue ribband race at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with its most recent wins coming in 2018 and 2019 courtesy of Will Power and Simon Pagenaud. But all four Penske entries struggled for qualifying speed at last year’s event, with rookie Scott McLaughlin the best-placed in
The 24-year-old Spaniard, who won his maiden IndyCar title in his first season with Ganassi in 2021, will be added to Ganassi’s roster along with fellow Ganassi IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson. Palou and three-time Daytona outright winner Dixon will drive the team’s #01 Cadillac DPi-V.R alongside full-time drivers Renger van der Zande
His sole victory of the year came in the second Indianapolis road course race, after passing polesitter Pato O’Ward for the lead and fending off Romain Grosjean to claim the win. Power previously had to endure watching a near-certain victory at the first race of the Detroit double-header slip from his grasp, as his car
Following the success of the most recent F1 global fan survey in partnership with F1, Motorsport Network and Nielsen last October, the latest effort sees a new survey launched on North America’s top level open-wheel racing series ahead of the 2022 season. Fans have the chance to make their voices heard and the survey is
Following his test of a Formula 1 McLaren in the autumn of 2018, Jimmie Johnson wasn’t reticent regarding his post-NASCAR career. No plans were in place but he said he wanted to try out IndyCars – on road courses specifically – and he wanted to return to sports-prototypes, where he had impressed in occasional forays
Australia-born Kalkhoven recently stepped down from his position as director and chairman of the board at Cosworth, a company he bought from Ford along with Pi Research in 2004. The KV Racing team he co-founded with Jacques Villenueve’s manager Craig Pollock ran Tony Kanaan to victory in the 2013 Indianapolis 500, before being disbanded after
A year ago, after running Palou as a rookie in IndyCar, Dale Coyne predicted his former charge would go on to shine at Chip Ganassi Racing. Palou had taken a podium for DCR at Road America – only his third IndyCar start and second on a US road course – and had also qualified five
Castroneves, who this year became the fourth member of the four-time Indy 500 winners’ elite, joins a long list of motorsport megastars for the event which will be held in Pite Havsbad, Sweden, between 5-6 February next year. Other drivers already confirmed include current Formula 1 drivers Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher and Valtteri Bottas, while
The 2018 Indy Lights title rivals won five IndyCar races between them last season, with the former remaining in title contention until the final round at Long Beach where his Arrow McLaren SP entry was an early retirement. The pair will team up with Herta’s 2022 Andretti Autosport IndyCar team-mate Devlin DeFrancesco and sportscar stalwart
Johnson, who unveiled his Carvana livery on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday morning, spent his rookie season competing in the 12 road and street courses on the 2021 schedule. But the NASCAR ace tested on the oval at Texas Motor Speedway and completed the IndyCar Rookie Orientation Programme at Indianapolis Motor Speedway shortly after the
Malukas, who scored seven wins in Lights and took the championship fight with Kyle Kirkwood down to the wire, also tested impressively with Coyne at Barber Motorsports Park in October, ending the day top of the times by a substantial margin. Malukas will partner with two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato, who was confirmed by
Hinchcliffe, 35, scored six wins across his 11-year career at this level, putting together three in the space of just 10 races in 2013 driving for Andretti Autosport. Yet arguably his most memorable moment was scoring pole for what was then the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team at the 2016 Indianapolis 500, just a year after
And now Al Unser, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, three-time Indycar champion, has left us at the age of 82 barely seven months after elder brother Bobby, leaving a similar-sized hole in the ranks of US open-wheel legends. He never relished the spotlight like Bobby, and would never have dreamt of being as strident, but while
IMS president Doug Boles stated on Friday that Unser had “died peacefully in his beloved Chama [New Mexico] home after a 17-year battle with Cancer.” As part of the Unser dynasty, “Big Al” was a fixture at the Indy 500 for three decades, his 27 starts the third highest number of appearances in history. He
The 44-year-old Japanese driver, who spent the last four seasons at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and racked up three wins including the team’s – and his – second Indy triumph, will drive the #51 entry vacated by Andretti Autosport-bound Romain Grosjean. As first reported by Autosport in September, Coyne and Sato have been negotiating for
The success of Formula 3000 champions Juan Pablo Montoya, Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais in Champ Car meant there was great expectation on the shoulders of 2003 king Bjorn Wirdheim when he headed Stateside in 2005. A money shortfall at his HVM squad, which couldn’t afford to go testing, and the lack of an experienced
Reigning FE champion De Vries lapped the 1.7-mile configuration of the track in 52.552 seconds, setting his best time on his 25th of 62 laps. Vandoorne, Williams Formula 1 reserve Jack Aitken (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Juncos Holinger’s 2022 IndyCar driver Callum Ilott were also in attendance at the four-car evaluation test. De Vries, who
With the US Air Force pulling its support for the #20 car which oval specialist and team owner Ed Carpenter shares with a road/street course driver, ECR has been freed up to enter discussions with non-American drivers. As a result, 2012 IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay’s candidacy for the ride has looked weaker and 26-year-old Aitken has emerged
The deal, announced back in August, formalises the IndyCar squad becoming part of the McLaren Racing organisation. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown will chair a five-person board, which comprises the previous team owners, Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson, along with three people appointed by McLaren Racing. Taylor Kiel will continue as president of Arrow McLaren
After being unable to nail down a seat in IndyCar next season, Askew links up with Andretti’s FE team to partner Jake Dennis at the team following the departure of Maximilian Guenther to Nissan e.dams. Through his time in IndyCar and the Road to Indy ladder, Askew has raced at a number of street venues