2023 INDYCAR SILLY SEASON
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
POSSIBLE 2025 INDYCAR CANDIDATES
Last Update: January 21, 2024
DRIVER EVALUATION TESTS
TEAM
CONFIRMED DRIVERS
CAR#
2025 INDYCAR DRIVERS CONFIRMED
NOTES
2024 IndyCar Silly Season
AJ Foyt Racing
14
41
Santino Ferrucci
David Malukas
Andretti Global
88
27
28
Colton Herta
Kyle Kirkwood
Marcus Ericsson
Pato O'Ward
Christian Lundgaard
Nolan Siegel
5
7
6
Arrow McLaren SP
Dale Coyne Racing
51
18
Alexander Rossi
Christian Rasmussen
20
21
Ed Carpenter Racing
Hired Sept 2024
multi-year beginning 2025
New hire for 2025
5/2022 multi-year extension
7/5/24 hired
6/18/24 - hired, multi-year deal
1/13 - hired
8
9
10
Kyffin Simpson
Scott Dixon
Alex Palou
Chip Ganassi Racing
60
66
Felix Rosenqvist
Marcus Armstrong
9/2024 resigned, multi-year
Hired 9/2024
Meyer Shank Racing
2
3
12
Josef Newgarden
Scott McLaughlin
Will Power

9/6/22 - multi-year deal
Contracted thru 2025
Team Penske

Multi-year start 2025
Hired 12/9/2024
Graham Rahal
Louis Foster
Devlin DeFrancesco
15
45
30
Rahal Letterman Lanigan
Racing
Jacob Abel
Contracted thru 2027
Contracted thru 2026
multi-yr beginning 2024
Conor Daly
Sting Ray Robb
77
78
Juncos Hollinger Racing
Hired 12/18/2024
Hired 11/20/2024
INDY NXT DRIVERS
2024 FULLTIME INDYCAR DRIVERS
w/no contract currently
Pietro Fittipaldi
Jack Harvey
Rinus VeeKay
Linus Lundqvist
OTHER DRIVERS
Juri Vips (F2, has relationship with RLL)
Logan Sargeant (F1)
Nico Varrone (WEC)
Felipe Drugovic (F1 Reserve driver)
Team
RLL
Coyne
Carpenter
Ganassi
Note: The "Silly Season" is the period of time when
race car drivers join or depart race teams, mostly
between seasons.

My annual Silly Season coverage ends when the last
drivers for the new season have been selected.
Page Index
July 5, 2024 - Unable to agree on a new contract for 2025 at Arrow
McLaren, Alex Rossi
will leave the team at the end of the season.  
Rossi finished 9th in points last year during his first year with the team.  
Rossi won the 2016 Indy 500 in his rookie year with Andretti Global.
July 2024 - Arrow McLaren hired 22-y/o Christian Lundgaard to
drive the No. 7 in 2025.  Lundgaard came to IndyCar from Formula 2
in 2022 and has been driving for
Rahal Letterman Racing.  
He finished 14th in points his rookie year and 8th in 2023.
RLL now has an open seat for 2025.
July 8, 2024 - Hunter McElrea completed his first IndyCar test at Mid-Ohio with Dale Coyne Racing.
He currently races LMP2 in IMSA.  He finished 2nd in points in the INDY NXT Series last year.
July 21 - McElrea raced in Toronto driving the Dale Coyne Racing No. 18.
July 31, 2024 - F2 driver Zane Maloney will get his first test of an IndyCar at the IMS road course
tomorrow for
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
2024 PARTTIME INDYCAR DRIVERS
Theo Pourchaire
Katherine Legge
Toby Sowery
Luca Ghiotto
Hunter McElrea
Augustin Canapino
McLaren
Coyne
Coyne
Coyne
Coyne
JHR
Team
# Races
6
7
2
3
1
11
PREMA is an Italian motorsports team competing in FIA F2 and F3.
They announced in April 2024 of their intention to start a 2-car IndyCar team in 2025.
They ordered 5 Dallara chassis and are creating a race shop in a 125,000 sq.ft. building
in Fishers IN.
Aug 7, 2024 - Augustin Canapino and Juncos Hollinger Racing
are going their separate ways affective immediately.  Conor Daly
will take over the seat.
Aug 25, 2024 - RLL fielded a 4th car (No. 75) at Portland for Juri Vips as they begin searching for a
driver to replace the outgoing Christian Lundgaard.  Vips competed at the same race last year for RLL.
Aug 13, 2024 - David Malukas has signed with AJ Foyt Racing to
drive in 2025.  Who will be pushed out at Foyt - Robb or Ferrucci?
(After missing the first half of 2024 due to a wrist injury, Malukas is
driving the last half of 2024 for MSR.)
Sept 4, 2024 - For 2025, Chip Ganassi Racing is scaling back from
5 IndyCar entries to 3.  This is probably because the Circle Leaders
program only rewards 3 entries per team.
Sept 12, 2024 - With the hiring of David Malukas for 2025, Sting
Ray Robb
has lost his ride with A.J. Foyt Racing.
Sept 12, 2024 - A.J. Foyt Racing will keep Santino Ferrucci and
has signed him to a multi-year contract.
83
90
Callum Ilott
Robert Shwartzman
Romain Grosjean
Hired Sept 2024
Hired Nov 2024
Hired Jan 2025
Sept 17, 2024 - The new PREMA Racing team has hired British
driver
Callum Ilott.  Ilott raced for the JHR IndyCar team in 2022 &
2023.  He raced twice for McLaren this year as well.
Sept 19, 2024 - Meyer Shank Racing hired Marcus Armstrong to
pilot the No. 66 for 2025.  Armstrong drove for Chip Ganassi Racing
the past two years.
Sep 21, 2024 - Ed Carpenter Racing has unexpectedly released
Rinus VeeKay, who has been racing for them since 2020.
Sep 25 - Ed Carpenter Racing has hired Alex Rossi to drive the
No. 20 next year.  Rossi has driven for McLaren the past two
seasons. The team will retain
Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21
and
Ed Carpenter plans to just race the Indy 500.
Sept 30 - 2022 F2 Champion Felipe Drugovich made his IndyCar testing debut at Barber
Motorsports Park in the No. 11
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.  His fastest lap was 1'07.631" on lap
110 of 129.  Drugovich is currently the reserve driver at Aston Martin F1.
Sept 30 - Indy NXT driver Jamie Chadwick made her IndyCar testing debut at Barber Motorsports
Park in the No. 25
Andretti Global Honda.  Her fastest lap was 1'08.687" on lap 81 of 87 laps.
Oct 9 - Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has hired 2024 Indy NXT
champion
Louis Foster to drive for them in IndyCar in 2025.  Foster
is 21 and hails from England.
Oct 30 - Chip Ganassi Racing re-signed Kyffin Simpson, who
will now drive the No. 8 Honda, which had been driven by
Linus
Lundqvist
.  Both were rookies in 2024.
Lundqvist has a better racing record, but less money to bring.
Pourchaire and Drugovic are both F2
Champions and hope to get into F1.
Lundqvist and VeeKay both deserve a ride,
but lack of funds are holding them back.
2025 IndyCar Driver Slots Still Open:
1 at Dale Coyne Racing
Nov 5 - PREMA Racing has hired Robert Shwartzman to race for
their new IndyCar team in 2025.  Shwartzman drove for PREMA in
F2 in 2020-21.  This year, he raced a hypercar in WEC for AF Corse.
Nov 13 - Chip Ganassi Racing chose Indy NXT driver Jacob Abel to test their car at the Texas
Motor Speedway.  
Gabby Chaves tested for Andretti Global.
Nov 20 - Sting Ray Robb has been hired to drive for Juncos Hollinger
Racing
in 2025.  He drove for AJ Foyt Racing in 2024.
Nov 19 - Five IndyCar teams were at the Thermal Club testing new development pieces and chassis
setup concepts.  While that was the priority, the teams took the opportunity to test other drivers:

TEAM                            DRIVER
Arrow McLaren             Enzo Fittipaldi     - currently races in F2.
Team Penske                 Felix Nasr           - drives for Penske's IMSA GTP team.
Ed Carpenter Racing    Hunter McElrea   - 2023 INDY NXT
Meyer Shank Racing    Logan Sargeant  - drove for the Williams F1 team.
Dale Coyne Raacing     Toby Sowery       - ran 3 races in 2024 for DCR
Dec 9 - Devlin DeFrancesco has been hired to drive for Rahal
Letterman Lanigan Racing
in 2025.  DeFrancesco raced for
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport's IndyCar team in 2022 & 2023.
Dec 4 - At Laguna Seca, Toby Sowery tested for Dale Coyne Racing and Louis Foster for RLL.
Dec 18 - Juncos Hollinger Racing hired Conor Daly to race for
them next year in the No. 77, previously driven by Romain Grosjean.
Dec 18 - Juncos Hollinger Racing did not renew Romain
Grosjean
's contract for 2025.
Jan 13, 2025 - Indy NXT driver Jacob Abel has been hired by Dale
Coyne Racing
to pilot the No. 51 Honda this season.
Jan 10 - Romain Grosjean has been hired by PREMA Racing as
a reserve driver.
Reserve driver
TEAM STAFF SILLY SEASON
Sept 19, 2024 - AJ Foyt Racing will be moving their race shop in Waller Texas and combining it
with their shop in Indianapolis.  Since some staff cannot do the move, this will likely create some
job openings.
Sept 26 - Arrow McLaren announced several staff changes:

McLaren parted ways with nine staff members ranging from mechanics to operations personnel.

Promotions

* Tony Kanaan promoted from Sporting Director to Deputy Team Principal.  He will take over
some of the day to day duties and media relations from Team Principal Gavin Ward so that Ward
can devote more time to his specialty in engineering.

*
Lauren Gaudion was promoted earlier in the year to VP of Marketing and Communications.

*
Kyle Sagan has been promoted to Deputy Chief Mechanic.

*
Chris Stafford moves from being a Car Chief to the Crew Chief overlooking all three entries in
support of the individual car chiefs with the Nos. 5, 6 and 7 Chevys.

*
Kate Gundlach has accepted offer to become Race Engineer, probably for Nolan Siegel’s No.
6 Chevy.

New Hires
*
Brad O’Brien has been hired as VP of Finance and Business.

*
Scott Harner hired as Director of Race Operations to look after the shop floor and logistics.
Sept 17 - Michael Andretti was booted out of running his team by major investor Daniel
Towriss, CEO of Group 1001.  The team will continue to be called
Andretti Global.
Oct 23 - Andretti Global has moved two engineers back in-house which they had loaned to
MSR when they had a partnership with them.  (MSR arranged a new alliance with CGR for
next season.)  Those engineers are
Dave Seyfert and Ron Barhorst.
Nov 12 -  Michael Cannon, Technical Director at AJ Foyt Racing the past two years, announced
he is leaving the team.

James Schnabel, a Race Engineer in the employ of Team Penske and loaned to AJ Foyt Racing,
is being moved from Ferrucci’s No. 14 team to the sister car piloted by team newcomer David
Malukas.

Michael Armbrester, who engineered Sting Ray Robb in the No. 41 last season, is moving
across to the No. 14 where he’ll be reunited with Ferrucci.

Didier Francesia, the Crew Chief of the No. 14 car, is leaving the team and joining Arrow
McLaren
in a new shop-based role.
Nov 19 - Arrow McLaren Team Principal Gavin Ward is quitting the team he has led for the last
two seasons.
Nov 26 - Chip Ganassi Racing, who begins a techncial partnership with MSR in 2025, has
assigned
Ross Bunnell to engineer the No. 60 entry of Felix Rosenqvist at MSR.

CGR is also assigning
Angela Ashmore, to engineer MSR’s No. 66 Honda.

Meyer Shank Racing appointed Neil Fife as its go-between with CGR.  Fife will also engineer
Helio Castroneves's car at the Indy 500.
Nov 29   - A.J. Foyt Racing’s former technical director, Michael Cannon left the team in early
November and after meeting with prospective NTT IndyCar Series teams, he’s taken a full-time
role with the new Italian team PREMA Racing as "head of engineereing."  He will oversee the
engineering efforts for both drivers.
Dec 2 - Juncos Hollinger Racing technical director Yves Touron has left the team to pursue
another opportunity. In his place,
David Brown has been hired.  He will lead JHR’s engineering
program and work directly with race engineers
Steven Barker and Allen McDonald.
Dec 11 - Yves Touron has joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing as race engineer for the No.
15 of Graham Rahal.

Ashley Higham has moved across to the No. 30 car of Devlin DeFrancesco.

The team moved engineering veteran
Todd Malloy over from its factory BMW IMSA GTP
program last season to act as its IndyCar technical director.
Dec 13 - Juncos Hollinger Racing has added veteran race car designer and engineer
Will Phillips to its IndyCar Series program as its new head of trackside engineering.

They also recently acquired
David Brown to be their new technical director.

The team also promoted
Tom Edwards to team manager, who will report to team principal
Dave O’Neill.
Jan 8, 2025 - With turnkey race engineers in short supply, the hunt to find the right candidates is on -

1.
Chip Ganassi Racing is looking for a senior race engineer to pair with sophomore Kyffin Simpson.

2.
Juncos Hollinger Racing, which has a new race engineering vacancy to fill after Stephen Barker
departed.  He is believed to have joined the new PREMA Racing outfit.

JHR has yet to decide its race engineering assignments for Conor Daly and Sting Ray Robb.
Jan 10 – The new PREMA Team held a presentation to show off it's team and livery.

Notes:
Their drivers are
Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman, with Romain Grosjean as reserve driver.

The team is lead
Rene Rosin, son of founder of the team, and partner Angelina Ertsou.

Deborah Mayer is co-team owner of their IndyCar team.

Other key members include:
* technical director and longstanding PREMA team manager
Guillaume Capietto
* operations manager Graham Quinn
* head of engineering Michael Cannon
* technical coordinator Alessandro Vantini
* aerodynamic leader John McGill
* sporting advisor Ryan Briscoe

Joao Ginete (previously Haas F1 aerodynamicist) will serve as Shwartzman’s race engineer
on the No. 83.

Steve Barker was hired away from JHR to be race engineer with the No. 90 car of Callum Ilott.
(Barker had worked with Illot previously at JHR.)

R&D engineer
Robert Gue was hired away from Arrow McLaren.
Jan 20 – Michael Cannon, who was just hired a week ago as the head of engineering at
PREMA racing has decided to leave the team!