2024 NTT Indycar series - News, rumours and hijinx

[MonteCristo]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Ouch.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Shock horror.... no one saw this one coming!

Graham Rahal has agreed to a multi-year extension with the family’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team he joined in 2013. The 34-year-old Ohioan will embark on his 18th season in IndyCar, having started in 2007 with Newman/Haas Racing in the former Champ Car series while in his teens.

https://racer.com/2023/11/13/rahal-sign ... n-lanigan/


In udder news

Andretti Global will move forward with three full-time NTT IndyCar Series entries.

“There will be just the three,” Andretti COO Rob Edwards told

The decision signals an end to its recent practice of fielding a fourth car for hire by a driver bringing funding to race alongside the team’s paid professionals; prior to accepting paying drivers, Andretti used all four of its cars to compete for wins and podiums.

In recent years, the Andretti team’s sustained competitiveness with four has wavered; it’s more than a decade removed from its last championship victory, earned by Ryan Hunter-Reay in the first year of IndyCar’s new chassis and engine formula in 2012.

Since the debut of the Dallara DW12 and the 2.2-liter turbocharged V6 motors, Andretti has come close to adding another title on numerous occasions, with former driver Alexander Rossi taking second in 2018 and third in 2019, and from its current roster, Colton Herta reached third in the Drivers’ standings in 2020. But since then, the organization has taken a large step backwards with its top performers finishing ninth in 2022 and 10th in 2023.

Heading into 2024, Andretti veterans Herta and Kyle Kirkwood will be joined by former Chip Ganassi Racing driver Marcus Ericsson as its core trio, and Edwards says the Honda-powered team is seeking the same reward experienced by Team Penske which cut its fourth car after the 2021 season and reaped the benefits of being smaller and more efficient by capturing the 2022 IndyCar title with Will Power.

“We’re definitely trying to focus our efforts and with a view to more race wins and championships and Indy 500s,” he said. “We look at what Penske did when they went from four to three, and in their case, they had four strong drivers, not ride buyers, but they still felt operationally that it was an advantage for them to do three and we see some similar advantages. And so we’re going to tread down that path and focus on Colton, Kyle, and Marcus.”

Amid the changes, Andretti will maintain continuity with the engineers attached to its three cars.

“Nathan O’Rourke will continue to work with Colton and Jeremy Milless will continue to work with Kyle, which obviously was successful last year,” Edwards said of the two wins Kirkwood delivered. “And then Olivier Boisson is going to be with Marcus and they’ve already had two or three days working together it’s working very well.”

Andretti will also enter the Indy 500 with a smaller effort of four cars in place of its familiar five.

“The plan is certainly to be four at the 500,” Edwards added. “There’s no anticipated plan to run more than that. Obviously, the 500 is super important and so that same drive to focus on the three cars for season would lead us to only add the one car for the 500.”

Since retiring from IndyCar at the end of 2020, Marco Andretti has returned to pilot an extra entry at the last three Indy 500s with a best performance of 17th in May.

https://racer.com/2023/11/13/andretti-s ... -for-2024/

[MonteCristo]

Unfortunate, but hopefully it allows a smaller team to step up with an extra engine available now.

[Everso Biggyballies]

The 2024 Grid is taking shape....

Chevrolet has 12 full-timers for 2024, and Honda Performance Development is currently preparing to support 15.

It means the same 12/15 share of the field and the same total count of 27 cars is expected to be carried over from last season. The only numerical changes within the 27 entries come from Honda’s camp.....Andretti trimming from 4 > 3 and Ganassi growing from 4 > 5.


Projected field:

A.J. Foyt Racing (2): No. 14 Chevrolet (to be determined), No. 55 Chevrolet (likely Benjamin Pedersen)

Andretti Global (3): No. 26 Honda (Colton Herta), No. 27 Honda (Kyle Kirkwood), No. 28 Honda (Marcus Ericsson)

Arrow McLaren (3): No. 5 Chevrolet (Pato O’Ward), No. 6 Chevrolet (David Malukas), No. 7 Chevrolet (Alexander Rossi)

Chip Ganassi Racing (5): No. 8 Honda (Linus Lundqvist), No. 9 Honda (Scott Dixon), No. 10 Honda (Alex Palou), No. 11 Honda (Marcus Armstrong), No. TBD Honda (Kyffin Simpson)

Dale Coyne Racing (2): No. 18 Honda (TBD), No. 51 Honda (TBD)

Ed Carpenter Racing (2): No. 20 Chevrolet (Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter), No. 21 Chevrolet (Rinus VeeKay)

Juncos Hollinger Racing (2): No. 77 Chevrolet (Romain Grosjean), No. 78 Chevrolet (Agustin Canapino)

Meyer Shank Racing (2): No. 06 Honda (Tom Blomqvist), No. 60 Honda (Felix Rosenqvist)

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (3): No. 15 Honda (Graham Rahal), No. 30 Honda (Pietro Fittipaldi), No. 45 Honda (Christian Lundgaard)

Team Penske (3): No. 2 Chevrolet (Josef Newgarden), No. 3 Chevrolet (Scott McLaughlin), No. 12 Chevrolet (Will Power)

https://racer.com/2023/11/20/indycars-2 ... ake-shape/. for the full story. That link also discusses potntial Indy 500 numbers, suggesting most of the increase there will run Chevy engines

[DoubleFart]

God there are some seat wasters there.

[MonteCristo]

God there are some seat wasters there.

That there are. But I'd count 6-7 drivers on the F1 grid being seat wasters too - 30-35% of the grid. Not too different.

[DoubleFart]

God there are some seat wasters there.

That there are. But I'd count 6-7 drivers on the F1 grid being seat wasters too - 30-35% of the grid. Not too different.

I'd nuke them as well. Sorry Lawrence, your boy is outta there.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Bit of a "Go figure", but American Legion continue to back a CGR car for 2024.... however, still on a car not driven by an American.

Yeah, so rookie Linus Lundqvist will "Be the One" (sic) and drive the #8 Honda formerly piloted by Marcus Ericsson, albeit with new colours and branding from the (Foreign driver loving) American Legion. They (AL) were on Spaniard Alex Palou's car last year

The relationship between CGR and the military service organization began in 2021 with its ‘Be The One’ campaign which was created to stop the high suicide rate among veterans. Seventeen American military veterans end their lives on a daily basis.

CGR team manager Taylor Kiel watched Palou do an excellent job as an American Legion ambassador and has full confidence in Lundqvist’s ability to carry on the Spaniard’s work.

“Alex did a fantastic job with the American Legion and interacting with veterans at posts all throughout the race schedule; he’s the ultimate pro in and out of the car,” Kiel said. “But I can say the same about Linus as well. He’s proven to us in a very short amount of time that he understands what it takes to represent our partners and be an engaging ambassador.

Full story. https://racer.com/2023/11/27/american-l ... -for-2024/

[rsroy]

As a Dutchman I follow Rinus Veekay a bit more then other drivers. Is he good enough to make a step to a top team? I am afraid that he will never achieve great results with Ed Carpenter Racing.

[MonteCristo]

As a Dutchman I follow Rinus Veekay a bit more then other drivers. Is he good enough to make a step to a top team? I am afraid that he will never achieve great results with Ed Carpenter Racing.

He runs a bit hot and cold. 2023 was certainly cold.

As you say, he will never go anything with Special Ed Racing. But I don't think he's a top driver either. That said, I was pretty wrong about Palou, so my talent scouting abilities mean nothing!

[erwin greven]

Rinus van Kalmthout is an ok driver. Sometimes he has a very good race, but in others he makes unforced errors.

[rsroy]

He did pretty well in the junior categories didn't he?

[erwin greven]

Don't know. I never followed Indy lights. And IndyCar is not what i follow that much either.

[MonteCristo]

He did pretty well in the junior categories didn't he?

Yeah, he did. But it was also a real low point for Indy Lights and Pro Mazda in terms of car count. Askew won in Lights during his year (and he beat Askew the year earlier in Pro Maza). But Askew's nothing special (not bad, but not noteworthy).

So it's hard to gauge his junior career.

He'd certainly do well in a better car, I'm sure. But how much better is another question.

[MonteCristo]

Doohan rejected IndyCar offer for 2024

Jack Doohan rejected an opportunity to race in IndyCar next season as he remains focused on a career in F1.

Speedcafe revealed Doohan would not return to Formula 2 next season as there is little value in a third year in the feeder category.

And while there are opportunities to race elsewhere, and as appealing as some of those options are, the 20-year-old remains steadfast in his F1 ambition.

“At the moment, I don’t have anything set to race,” he confirmed.

“Had quite a lot of options and in all sub formulas, and inside formulas other than Formula 1.

“So not that the opportunities were shy – Super Formula, IndyCar, Hypercar, whatever it was – I was very fortunate to have those options.

“However, at this point in time, I feel it’s crucial that I focus only on Formula 1, which is heavily provided by Alpine that I’m able to stay within a car.”

Doohan was in the frame for a World Endurance Championship drive with Alpine, though that has not come to pass.

With no race programme in place, Doohan looks instead to continue testing previous-spec F1 machinery.

https://www.speedcafe.com/2023/12/04/do ... -for-2024/

Well, I mean, it worked for Piastri.

But Piastri won F3 and F2. Doohan has won some races. He's not slow at all. But he's not some haloed wunderkind.

Unless Alpine have given him some assurance about 2025, seems like a bit of a stupid move to not race.

[MonteCristo]

Dreyer & Reinbold planning for two-car Indy 500 entry

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing is set to return to the Indianapolis 500 in 2024 with another two-car effort.

Its most recent lineup of 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and IndyCar veteran Graham Rahal — a stand-in for the injured Stefan Wilson — had a strong performance in May where its cars placed 11th and 22nd. And while the team has yet to announce its next roster, the Chevy-powered outfit is said to have both seats earmarked for specific drivers to contest the May 26 classic.

“We’re trying to accomplish a few things; we have a direction we want to go, but we aren’t quite there yet,” Dennis Reinbold told RACER. “But we’ll be at two cars again, which is what we have in motion.”

https://racer.com/2023/12/06/dreyer-rei ... 500-entry/

And in wider news:

IndyCar confirms postponement of hybrid debut until after Indy 500
The NTT IndyCar Series has made the decision to delay the introduction of its energy recovery system.

“The much-anticipated debut of the new power unit is expected to launch after the 108th Indianapolis 500, during the second half of the 2024 IndyCar Series season,” the series confirmed.

The call comes one year and one day after IndyCar announced it would be halting the introduction of its new 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 engines in favor of continuing with its 2.2-liter motors and having Chevrolet and Ilmor Engineering, and Honda and Honda Performance Development, reassign their sizable new 2.4L motor creation budgets to designing and making new supercapacitor-based ERS units for 2024.