Photo: Penske Entertainment / Joe Skibinski

Nikita Johnson used a first corner move to take a lead he would not give up in Indy Nxt’s season-opening race in St. Petersburg.

The 18-year-old claimed his and Cape Motorsports’ maiden victory in the championship, and it was a winning start for his team’s partnership with Ed Carpenter Racing.

There was drama pre-race as radio trouble meant Chip Ganassi Racing’s Niels Koolen did not leave the pits with the rest of the field. He was able to make it out in time to join the race start, when Andretti Global’s poleman Max Taylor led the field up to racing speeds.

He covered the inside line going into the opening corner, while fellow front row starter Johnson went to the outside and had taken the lead before even reaching the apex of turn one.

The field navigated the first braking zones without issue, and HMD Motorsports’ Tymek Kucharczyk overtook Andretti’s Seb Murray and Lochie Hughes for third. Later in the lap, HMD’s Jack Beeton spun then AJ Foyt Racing’s Alessandro de Tullio drove into the rear of Andretti’s Josh Pierson, which led to a caution period.

Racing resumed on lap four of a scheduled 45, and Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe had to hold off Pierson for sixth into turn one.

Two laps later there was another caution-triggering event as Ganassi’s Carson Etter broke his front wing then drove over the top of it and into the barriers exiting turn eight.

The next restart was on lap 10, and Taylor tried reclaiming the lead around the outside of turn one but there was not enough room for him to stay alongside into turn one. Murray fought Kucharczyk twice during the lap, but could not maintain his challenge.

Everyone was setting personal best laptimes, and Taylor was mostly able to match Johnson’s pace until the next caution period when Foyt’s Nicholas Monteiro crashing out exiting turn nine on lap 17.

Murray looked to Kucharczyk’s outside approaching turn one on the lap 21 restart, and Koolen got alongside team-mate James Roe Jr on the twisty stretch between turns two and three. They rubbed wheels, then crashed, and racing was neutralised once more.

Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Alexander Koreiba and Cape’s Matteo Nannini were deemed to have violated the rules of the restart and sent to the back for the next one on lap 26. This time it took two laps for Johnson to make a 0.9-second gap, with Kucharczyk a further 0.9s back, but Taylor reduced it to 0.7s as the race became a timed encounter that would mean a 42-lap distance.

Taylor set a new fastest lap on lap 33, getting within 0.45s of Johnson, but the leader responded and had a 0.86s margin after lap 35 as he lowered his own pace. The pair continued pushing, and Johnson took the fastest lap next time by. He was now 0.971s ahead, and while Taylor did respond by lowering his own pace, both did on lap 38 and Johnson broke a second clear with another fastest lap. The debuting Kucharczyk, engineered by Tim Neff, was now 4.43s behind.

Taylor reclaimed the fastest lap on the next tour, and saving up his push-to-pass for a late-race attack. But Johnson had used it sparingly too, so as both hit the button over the final two laps it meant Johnson was still able to win by 0.699s.

Kucharczyk fell a further second behind, with Murray close behind but never attacking, and Hughes finished fifth. A lot further back was Rowe, who had continued to hold off Pierson, and HMD’s Salvador de Alba finished eighth after passing Abel’s Max Garcia on lap 26 (having conceded a place to him in a forceful turn one move on lap 11) then overtaking Cusick Morgan Motorsports’ Juan Manuel Correa on lap 31.

Beeton recovered to 11th, and Bryce Aron was Ganassi’s top driver in 18th.

Race results (42 laps)

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Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

DEForce Racing’s Sebastian Garzon was quickest in the first practice session of the USF2000 season on the streets of St. Petersburg.

He pipped Pabst Racing’s Eddie Beswick by a tiny 0.0592 seconds, with a second covering the top 14 in the 24-car field.

Exclusive Autosport’s Evan Cooley was 0.1349s behind in third, and there was a 0.3018s gap to Jay Howard Driver Development’s Liam Loiacono in fourth. Just 0.0447s thenh split Loiacono, Joao Vergara (Velocity Racing Development) and Anthony Martella (Exclusive).

There was a surprise addition to DEForce’s line-up, as Brady Golan was at the wheel. The 18-year-old came fifth in Formula Regional Americas last year, and was 18th in his half-season in USF2000.

He has signed with Turn 3 Motorsport to step up to USF Pro 2000 for 2026, which will rule him out of making further USF2000 appearances due to the two series racing on the same dates on IndyCar’s support bill.

JHDD which has partnered with IndyCar team Ed Carpenter Racing, has a four-car line-up in USF2000 and three of its drivers were announced in the last week.

Swedish racer Erik Holm starts his single-seater career with JHDD, having spent last year in shifter karting. The 20-year-old came 13th in the WSK Super Master Series’ KZ2 kart class, and was 37th in the WSK Final Cup the year before. He has also tested a FRegional-based Eurocup-3 car.

Liacono graduates to USF2000 after being USF Juniors runner-up with JHDD. He won five races and claimed two other podiums, and that followed the YACademy Winter Series where he was ninth in the standings. The 18-year-old Australian spent three years in his home country’s Formula Ford scene prior to 2025.

The team’s line-up is completed by Naim Saleh, who takes two steps up the road to Indy after coming third in the Skip Barber Formula Race Series last year. That uses Formula 4 cars, which he also got experience of on home soil in Brazilian F4’s Formula 1-supporting non-championship round at Interlagos.

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Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

USF Juniors has attracted a big field for this week’s opening round on the Homestead-Miami Speedway roval.

The event will be officially called the ‘USF Juniors Grand Prix of Homestead’, although it has not been stated whether that will also be the title of one of the three races taking place.

There are three teams fielding four or more cars, including the huge seven-car line-up at Zanella Racing. Their signings include Maddie Colleran, who was 20th last season, Ligier Junior Formula Championship podium-finisher Max Mokarem, Victor Couto and Leonardo Serravalle. The latter two recently came third and seventh in the YACademy Winter Series, which uses USF Juniors cars.

A notable pre-season signing is Ivan Machado Perez at the joint Velocity Racing Development and Pole Position Motorsports operation. The 2025 Skip Barber Formula Race Series champion had previously tested with Olivia Racing.

Jay Howard Driver Development, which has now partnered with IndyCar team Ed Carpenter Racing, has four drivers in its garage. Its international talents are Max Cuthbert, who moves into single-seaters after coming third in Britain’s entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior as a sophomore last year, and Nordic 4 race-winner Casper Nissen from Denmark.

Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series runner-up Bex Cranston has joined Exclusive Autosport, YACademy Winter Series runner-up Karol Pasiewisz will drive for local team Olivia Racing (previously known as International Motorsport) and NACAM Formula 4 race-winner Elias Vignola is part of DEForce Racing’s line-up.

Pre-event testing at Homestead took place on Monday. Cuthbert set the pace in session one, a 1m23.8310s putting him 0.1564s ahead of Machado Perez and 0.1877s clear of Cranston.

Machado Perez posted a 1m23.9582s to top session two, with a gap of 0.176s to Cranston in second place. Cuthbert and Exclusive’s Brenden Cooley were also within 0.3s of the pace.

In session three all but four drivers improved, one of those being the absent Alex Berg (Berg Racing). Machado Perez lowered the pace to 1m23.687s, pipping Cranston by 0.058s, Cuthbert by 0.1183s and Pasiewicz by 0.1814s.

Test results

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Photo: James Black

Indy Nxt race-winner Matteo Nannini will make a comeback to the championship this year with Cape Motorsports powered by Ed Carpenter Racing.

When Nannini was last on the grid in 2023, aged 19, he only contested the first half of the season with Juncos Hollinger Racing and his sole top-10 finish was victory with fastest lap from pole position on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course. He came 19th in the standings.

Now 22 and owning his own team, Nannini has committed to contesting the full 2026 season with Cape as it begins its alliance with IndyCar team ECR. He recently tested with Cape at Sebring.

“I’m very happy to be back in Indy Nxt with Cape by ECR,” said Nannini. “I’m grateful to the team for this great opportunity and for the trust they’ve shown in me. Our first test together was very positive; we worked well as a group and built a strong foundation from the start. I’m looking forward to the season ahead and to enjoying every moment on track.”

During his single-seater career, Nannini won the UAE4 title, came 15th in the Formula Regional European Championship, 14th in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and raced part-time in Formula 2 where he scored one point.

He will be team-mate in Indy Nxt to rookie Nikita Johnson, who did two rounds last year but primarily raced in Formula Regional Oceania, GB3 and then the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

Enve Motorsports, the team co-founded by Matteo Nannini, is competing full-time this year in USF2000 which is two steps below Indy Nxt on the Road to Indy. It is Nannini’s long-term target to get Enve onto the Indy Nxt grid and even more ambitiously top-tier single-seaters by acquiring a charter that would enable it to race in IndyCar.

Juncos is one of IndyCar’s full-time entrants, and that led to it withdrawing from Indy Nxt last year to focus its efforts on its more resource-heavy programme. It should be back on the Indy Nxt grid in 2026, having signed Ricardo Escotto. However it will be without its founder and co-owner Ricardo Juncos’s father Ricardo Arturo Juncos, who recently passed away.

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Photo: IndyCar / Joe Skibinski

Ed Carpenter Racing has become the latest IndyCar team to join the trend of expanding into junior single-seaters.

Andretti Global and Juncos Hollinger Racing has been long-time Indy Nxt entrants, and in 2022 Dale Coyne Racing joined the grid in association with HMD Motorsports. Chip Ganassi Racing arrived this year, and for 2026 there will be the return of AJ Foyt Racing and arrival of Cusick Morgan Motorsports with HMD’s support, and now ECR.

Its venture into Indy Nxt, which began with yesterday’s post-season test, is in partnership with Indiana-based Cape Motorsports which has already signed Nikita Johnson for 2026.

Cape first appeared in Indy Lights by managing RLR Andersen Racing, an alliance between Dan Andersen and IndyCar team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, through 2007 and ’08. In 2010 it returned in partnership with Wayne Taylor Racing, and across those three campaigns it contributed to one win and three other podiums.

A permanent Indy Nxt return was made in 2023, which has resulted in two more collaborations with IndyCar teams. A technical partnership meant Cape’s two cars were entered as ‘Andretti Cape’ for the last two seasons, and now it takes on its new partner’s IndyCar colours as it uses the ‘Cape Motorsports powered by ECR’ name.

Over the last three years, Cape has claimed three podiums, and put a car in the top five on the grid three times. With ECR it will “collaborate to provide technical support, testing opportunities for emerging drivers and career development for engineers and mechanics”.

As a driver, ECR owner Ed Carpenter came third in Indy Nxt in 2002 and ’03. Now he will get a taste of the series below it on IndyCar’s support bill — USF Pro 2000, USF2000 and the entry-level USF Juniors — as ECR also partners with Jay Howard Driver Development.

“I’m very excited to bring these highly successful programmes together to create a complete development path through the entire open-wheel ladder system,” said Carpenter.

“As ECR continues to grow and work toward becoming a championship-calibre team, this is an important step forward. This partnership should not only strengthen ECR but also Cape Motorsports and JHDD.”

JHDD ran Christian Rasmussen — now an IndyCar race-winner with ECR — to the 2020 USF2000 title and 2021 USFP2000 crown.

Liam McNeilly narrowly missed out on becoming 2024 USF Juniors champion with JHDD, and they were dominating in USF2000 this year before unexpected visa problems ruled McNeilly out of action.

“Partnering with ECR and JHDD is an incredibly exciting step for Cape Motorsports,” said team co-owners Dominic and Nicholas Cape.

“This collaboration brings together three organizations that share the same passion for discovering and shaping young talent. From karting to IndyCar, we’re building a pathway that gives drivers every opportunity to grow, learn and ultimately succeed at the highest level. For us, it’s about more than just racing, it’s about building the next generation of champions.”

ECR has a driver development programme which Indy Nxt racer Josh Pierson is a member of.

The post IndyCar team Ed Carpenter Racing expands into junior single-seaters appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Joe Skibinski

Every year, some of junior single-seaters’ top drivers are handed professional opportunities. Some lead to long-term careers in sportscars, while others try out the more cut-throat world of F1 and IndyCar

In addition to annually ranking the top 50 drivers in junior single-seater racing since 2011, Formula Scout also recognises the achievements of the very best of those who ‘graduate’ into the world of professional racing each year.

There were three Formula 2 race-winners who debuted in F1 this season, and while two of them quickly became de facto stars of the grid they are not eligible for this list since their primary programme was F2. Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman contested three grands prix and scored seven points, earning himself a full-time seat with Haas next year, and Williams handed its junior Franco Colapinto a surprise F1 promotion mid-season and he scored five points from nine races.

Bearman competed in all F2 rounds that didn’t clash with his F1 duties but struggled to 12th in the standings (his three wins countered by engine issues and a lack of pace elsewhere), and Colapinto dropped out of F2 once he became an F1 driver. Despite missing four rounds he still came ninth in the points. There are rumours he could appear in F1 again in 2025, despite no seats being free, but returning to F2 is also an option having contributed to an explosion in Argentine sponsors in racing.

Jack Doohan, third in F2 in 2023, made his F1 debut with Alpine in the season finale ahead of racing full-time there in 2025.

Taylor Barnard also won in F2 before dumping it once McLaren signed him to its Formula E team, but he did 20 races in the former and only four in the latter this year. He began the 2024-25 season this month by making the Sao Paulo E-Prix podium.

Another ineligible name is Esteban Masson, who won the Formula Regional-based Eurocup-3 championship last year but through his sponsors and the backing of Toyota ended up in GT sportscars for 2024. He drove a Lexus in the FIA Endurance Trophy for GT3 cars, and in the European Le Mans Series claimed two class wins and came second in the standings.

Photo: Antoine Evora

However Toyota is sending him back to single-seaters next year, and in Japan’s third-tier Super Formula Lights series.

There were 15 drivers who could have made Formula Scout’s Class of 2023, but didn’t perform strongly enough – or in a series with not enough high-quality opposition to be compared against – to make the cut.

Cayman Islander Kyffin Simpson was FRegional Americas champion in 2021, then became a development driver for IndyCar powerhouse Chip Ganassi Racing. Before that he was in Honda Performance Development’s GT3 academy programme, which could have led to a professional single-seater drive when he was just 17 as his FRegional title earned him a scholarship from HDP (which he turned down) to step up to Super Formula.

He took the more sensible option of building his experience in Indy Nxt, and despite failing to win in his two seasons there got a IndyCar seat for 2024. Not only that, but a full-time ride with Ganassi. And was signed after a single test day in the car.

At the time, Simpson said “I don’t really have any expectations set for myself”, but he had a race-winning car at his disposal and two title-winning team-mates to learn from as a rookie. Externally, there were expectations being set that few anticipated he would meet. But then the 19-year-old finished 12th on his debut with the second fastest lap.

That ended up being Simpson’s best race result, and he only qualified in the top 20 three times en route to 21st in the points.

Over in Super Formula there was another questionable signing, as TGM Grand Prix put 18-year-old Juju Noda in one of its cars. The Euroformula race-winner had primarily spent the previous two years in club series for third-tier single-seaters, so had a lot to learn about higher levels of downforce and racecraft. While becoming the third ever woman to race in SF during its time as a top-tier single-seater series is impressive, she qualified more than two seconds off the pace everywhere and only late safety car periods prevented her from finishing more than a minute behind the winner in every race.

Photo: Super Formula

Performing stronger in their rookie campaigns were Iori Kimura (B-MAX Racing) and Hibiki Taira (Team Impul), who were the top two in Super Formula Lights last year. The former scored three points, and the latter took two as a part-timer as well as coming third in Super GT’s secondary GT300 class with INGING. He took a win and three second places there.

Stepping up to FE after four years and four wins in F2 was Jehan Daruvala. The Indian drove for Maserati and came 21st in the standings, starting three races in the top 10, taking the fastest lap in the Monaco E-Prix and finishing a career-best seventh in one of Berlin’s races. It was not enough to retain his seat for 2025.

Most junior single-seater graduates ended up racing prototype sportscars this year, but one made it into the top Hypercar class. Carl Bennett, a Formula 4 race-winner with Eurocup-3 experience, joined Isotta Fraschini in the World Endurance Championship but the brand only lasted five races before dropping out and in that time a 14th place was the best result.

In the lower-level LMP2 machinery he came 10th in the Asian Le Mans Series and 20th in ELMS, concluding both campaigns with podium finishes.

Gregoire Saucy, a podium finisher in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, drove a United Autosport-run McLaren to ninth in WEC’s GT3 class (doing enough to retain his seat for a second season and earn an FE test with McLaren through mutual team boss Zak Brown), and in ELMS led a LMP2 Pro-Am entry to two overall seventh places as a reliably fast driver.

ELMS was full of former open-wheel talents, with F2 race-winner Clement Novalak (Inter Europol Competition), 2023 F2 runner-up Frederik Vesti (Cool Racing) and 2022 champion Felipe Drugovich (Vector Sport) coming seventh, ninth and 15th in the standings respectively. Novalak was also LMP2 runner-up in the Le Mans 24 Hours, while the latter two served as F1 reserve drivers at Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG respectively. Vesti will race a Cadillac hypercar in IMSA next year.

Photo: ELMS

USF Pro 2000 race-winner Bijoy Garg came 11th overall for United Autosports in ELMS and 19th in IMSA’s LMP2 class with one podium, and Indy Nxt podium-finisher Rasmus Lindh appeared part-time in IMSA and ELMS in various cars.

One-time FRegional Europe podium-finisher Maceo Capietto won in ELMS at Mugello, with a place close to his FIA Platinum-graded team-mate Matteo Cairoli and was the fastest LMP2 rookie at Le Mans, but that pace wasn’t on show everywhere.

The F1-supporting Porshce Supercup attracted a surprisingly high number of sportscar newcomers in 2024. Former F2 racer Lirim Zendeli made a second attempt at redirecting his career, after his detour into USFP2000 last year only resulted in one win, and was 12th in the Supercup standings as well as coming fourth in Porsche Carrera Cup Italy with two poles with Ombra Racing. Monaco Increase Management was responsible for Zendeli’s move, and some of his results didn’t show the continual upwards trajectory he was on.

Eurocup-3 race-winner Francesco Braschi and FREC graduate Victor Bernier were 15th and 19th in the Supercup, with the former taking podiums in Italy while the latter came sixth in Carrera Cup France – two places behind the rookie champion and former FREC rival Marcus Amand.

As none of these names could make the cut, here is Formula Scout’s Class of 2023… Key Wins (W), poles (P), fastest laps (FL)

10. Kas Haverkort NETHERLANDS 21y/o
8th in Porsche Supercup, 7th in PCC Germany (1 W, 1 P, 1 FL), 5th in PSC Southern Europe (2 W)   2023: 4th in FREC (2 W, 2 P, 4 FL)   2022: 5th in FREC (2 W, 1 P, 2 FL)

Photo: Porsche

Another driver to spend their 2024 racing in spec series for Porsche GT cars, and the most successful of them, was Haverkort.

The 2020 Spanish F4 champion continued a trend through his car racing career of only driving for Dutch teams by joining GP Elite to do three different series in one year. This contrasted to having spent the previous three years in just one series, with his three FREC campaigns not earning him a place higher up the single-seater ladder.

In the Supercup, the most prestigious of one-make series, Haverkort qualified 10th on debut and improved to sixth place in the race. Around the streets of Monaco his FREC experience was of use and he started and finished fourth, earning him top rookie honours, and two further top-10 finishes followed at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.

At the Hungaroring, where he had won from pole in FREC, Haverkort was pipped to top spot in qualifying by just 0.078s and then held second place for the first six laps of the race before being passed. Once gapped by the top two he settled in third, marking another rookie classification win as well as his first overall podium.

Although he remained on the pace following that, he had disastrous races at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza that dropped him from fourth to eighth in the standings and cost him the rookie title.

In Carrera Cup Germany he again showed his speciality for the Hungaroring by winning from pole, and two Red Bull Ring podiums before another bad season finale earned him seventh in the points. Yet again the rookie title went amiss due to a bad final race. Not quite delivering on his promise was made more difficult by the fact he had begun the year with two Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe outings that had resulted in two wins and fifth in the standings.

9. Nolan Siegel UNITED STATES 20/o
23rd in IndyCar, Le Mans 24H LMP2 winner, 53rd in IMSA LMP2 class, 17th in Indy Nxt (1 W, 1 P)   2023: 3rd in Indy Nxt (2 W, 2 FL), 5th in Asian LMS (1 W), 8th in IMSA LMP2 (2 W), 24th in Intercontinental GT Challenge, 25th in IMSA LMP3 (1 FL)

Photo: McLaren

Siegel won in USF2000 in 2021, USFP2000 in ’22 and Indy Nxt in ’23, so was heading to IndyCar in 2024 rightly timed?

He came third in the Indy Nxt standings last year, and opted for a second season with HMD Motorsports. But his off-season preparations included IndyCar and SF tests, which prompted a change in plan. Dale Coyne Racing had supported his Indy Nxt entry through 2023, and after his IndyCar test with them he signed to contest four races which didn’t clash with Indy Nxt.

His racing schedule began in St. Petersburg, where he took pole and dominated Indy Nxt’s season-opening race. IndyCar’s non-championship $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club followed, and Siegel was seventh in his heat so didn’t reach the main race. Rick Ware Racing got involved in running his car for the Long Beach Grand Prix, and he finished a lapped 20th. Siegel was runner-up in the next two Indy Nxt races, and was still second in the points when he left round three of the season.

At the Indianapolis 500 he flipped in practice, then was far too slow to qualify for the race so had a second non-start.

A sorry turn of events meant Augustin Canapino withdrew from racing at Road America, and Siegel dropped out of Indy Nxt to take his seat at Juncos Hollinger Racing. Once in the car, which had previously been run in a commercial alliance with McLaren, Siegel had another weekend of being lapped.

Siegel never appeared in Indy Nxt again, as he then signed a multi-year IndyCar deal with McLaren. There was an instant improvement in qualifying by having a more competitive car, twice being 11th on ovals, and came from 20th to finish seventh at Gateway. On a points-per-race basis he would’ve been ahead of his fellow Indy Nxt graduates, but overall his IndyCar campaign didn’t make an impact.

What brings Siegel into this list is his impressive sportscar career. At the Daytona 24 Hours he was in the LMP2 class’s only Ligier and outpaced his team-mates, then won the Le Mans 24H’s LMP2 class at his first attempt. He did the world’s toughest race with less preparation than rivals due to IndyCar commitments meaning he missed testing. A big achievement.

8. Ollie Gray BRITAIN 19y/o
7th in ELMS, 14th in PCC Italy, 22nd in PSC Southern Europe   2023: 28th in FIA F3   2022: 2nd in British F4 (2 W, 2 P)

Photo: FocusPackMedia – Marcel Wulf

Only in his fourth year of car racing, Gray made a canny career move after a disastrous FIA F3 campaign in 2023. And like Bearman’s rise to F1, it was thanks to the WH Sports management company.

Williams had signed Gray as a junior driver in 2022, and he rewarded its faith by coming second in British F4 with Rodin Carlin. He moved up to F3 with the team, but he and the team were very uncompetitive. Three 14th places were his best results, and he came 28th in the standings.

WH Sports, as with other clients, was quick-moving to find a place where Gray could show off his talents to the world (and of course sponsors) again as soon as possible and found him an ELMS seat alongside IndyCar driver Luca Ghiotto and Novalak.

Campaigns in spec Porsche series with Ombra were added almost immediately after. The PSC Southern Europe season took place between January and March, meaning Gray could get used to racing with a roof over his head early in the year in an environment with less scrutiny than other series. He did two rounds, and penalties cost him a podium on his first outing.

Ghiotto had one LMP2 start to his name prior to the ELMS season, so it was critical for the Inter Europol drivers to learn off each other to be competitive as they couldn’t truly rely on one experienced talent like other line-ups. The combination finished the season opener in 10th, and at Paul Ricard spent two spells in the lead. Their time up front ended with 20 minutes to go as the gearbox went, and a drive-through penalty and race interruptions ended podium ambitions at Imola.

Third place was less than 1.3s away at Spa-Francorchamps, then Gray qualified the car fourth at Mugello and the crew were dominating the race before full course yellows, virtual safety car periods and then red flags brought them back into the pack. Gray was at the wheel then, and tried to reclaim the lead on the restart. Under the next VSC he handed the car over to Ghiotto, who took it from seventh back up to third. The trio finished fifth in the Algarve finale despite Gray ending lap one in 41st after being spun around and then hit.

He also had to pit the car for repairs, but cycled into the lead before making his first proper stop and returning to the track in sixth. Gray was attempting to overtake his team-mate for third before a VSC period began, then he handed the car over. Ghiotto had it in third before a late splash-and-dash pitstop that meant they finished a hard-fought for fifth place.

Gray’s performances did not go unnoticed, and he has now tested a hypercar in America. A big change from 12 months ago.

7. Lorenzo Fluxa SPAIN 20y/o
3rd in ELMS (2 W), 9th in Euroformula (1 W, 1 FL), 12th in Le Mans 24H LMP2, 16th in Int. GT Open   2023-24: 19th in ALMS   2023: 4th in FRegional Middle East, 7th in FRegional Europe

Photo: Marcel Wulf

Victorious in ELMS’ dramatic Algarve finale, and in the opening race at Barcelona, were Cool Racing’s Lorenzo Fluxa, Malthe Jakobsen and Ritomo Miyata.

Fluxa was win-free but competitive in FRegional last year, then stepped up to Euroformula with Motopark for 2024. After one round, in which he took a win, a second and a third, the German team then moved him across to its International GT Open line-up. In the ‘sister’ series to Euroformula, he took three consecutive top-five finishes in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to come 16th in the standings as a part-timer.

ELMS took priority, and the Cool Racing crew’s two wins was accompanied by two retirements. At Paul Ricard they were comfortably leading before car issues forced Jakobsen to retire the car in the final hour, a result that undid their title hopes, then at Imola it was Fluxa who started the car and he kept it clean for an hour-and-a-half to sit in third. But one mistake proved very costly, as a spin as a round of pitstops began meant that when he did pit the car came back out in ninth place.

That result still would’ve earned some crucial points, but stand-in driver Paul-Loup Chatin (since Miyata was racing in F2) then crashed out hard while trying to lap an LMP3 car shortly after the race’s two-hour mark.

At Spa they were in contention to finish third after Fluxa’s time in the car, but in the dramatic squabble for the position late on Jakobsen had to settle for fifth. Fluxa had a battle-filled and fun first two stints at Mugello, but in that time he and several other crews lost far too much time to the cars up front and once his team-mates took over the car dropped to ninth.

The Algarve victory was some justice for a season of learning that had the potential to turn Fluxa and his team-mates into champions. They also did Le Mans, and finished 12th in class.

6. Hunter McElrea NEW ZEALAND 25y/o
IMSA Enduro Cup LMP2 champion (2 W, 1 FL)   2023: 2nd in Indy Nxt (2 W, 2 P, 4 FL)   2022: 4th in Indy Nxt (2 W, 3 P, 1 FL)

Photo: Chris Jones

Photo: Travis Hinkle

The 2023 Indy Nxt runner-up had to wait until July to make his IndyCar debut in Toronto, driving the car Siegel was initially contracted to be in. Afterwards, he boldly claimed he could’ve been “fighting with good pace at the front”.

McElrea was the top rookie in practice, and comfortably faster than Dale Coyne team-mate Toby Sowery, but failed to set a lap in qualifying after crashing and lined up 25th on the grid. He ran as high as ninth before his first pitstop, then 10th in his second stint, before retiring from 20th place.

“Did some cool moves. And then on my last stint, on my outlap I just got in the grey, and just brushed the wall, and then unfortunately a couple laps later the suspension failed from just that little brush. Really unfortunate.”

He then joined Ed Carpenter Racing for post-season testing and was second fastest at The Thermal Club, and is looking for further IndyCar outings in 2025. But his racing future is already secured, after an impressive rookie season in IMSA.

McElrea drove for TDS Racing in the LMP2 class, and only in the five races (ranging from six to 24 hours) that made up the Endurance Cup. The car had already been retired before McElrea got in it at Daytona, which made for an even harder race debut in the Sebring 12 Hours. But on the bumpy track the LMP2 pace was set by McElrea (with the Kiwi put in the car while it was still light), and the TDS car finished 1.127s short of victory.

At Watkins Glen he was again one of the fastest in race conditions, but crashed out in tricky weather conditions. When he returned to the car for the last two IMSA rounds, he was victorious both times. The car finished in the top eight overall in both races, the latter being Petit Le Mans, and meant the crew also won the Endurance Cup. McElrea will stay with TDS for 2025.

5. Arthur Leclerc MONACO 24y/o
4th in ELMS (1 W, 1 FL), Italian GT Endurance champion (2 W, 3 P)   2023: 15th in F2 (1 FL)   2022: 6th in FIA F3 (1 W, 1 FL)

Photo: FocusPackMedia - Marcel Wulf

Photo: ACI Sport

Leclerc spent 2024 learning from some immensely experienced and talented drivers, accelerating his own development as a result. in ELMS he drove an LMP2 car for Panis Racing alongside Charles Milesi (a class winner at Le Mans and champion in WEC) and Manuel Maldonado, while in Italian GT he shared Scuderia Baldini’s Ferrari 296 GT3 with Giancarlo Fisichella, a man with 229 F1 starts and many class wins in IMSA and WEC to his name.

The 24-year-old brother of F1 racer Charles headed to sportscars after a single season in F2 featuring one podium, and following a 2022 in which he had won in FIA F3 and also been FRegional Asian champion.

Although he exited the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2023, Leclerc got a job with the brand as one of its F1 development drivers and as part of that he did several private tests and drove in practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In ELMS he was Panis’s fastest driver in qualifying on his debut, then his team-mates put the car on pole twice later in the season. They turned the first of those into victory at Imola, and went to Algarve contending for the title. But after taking pole, it was a race of going backwards and they finished 16th overall. Despite the sour end, it was a campaign where Leclerc didn’t look like a rookie and Ferrari rewarded him with a hypercar test as well as his F1 running.

Over in Italian GT, the Fisichella/Leclerc car was on pole for three our of four races and won two of them to take the title.

4. Ayumu Iwasa JAPAN 23y/o
5th in Super Formula (1 P)   2023: 4th in F2 (3 W, 1 P, 3 FL)   2022: 5th in F2 (2 W, 2 P, 1 FL)   2021: 12th in FIA F3 (1 W)

Photo: Red Bull

Photo: Red Bull

Failing to become the first Red Bull junior to be Super Formula champion, as a rookie, potentially cost Iwasa a 2025 F1 seat.

Like Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson before him, he proved himself in F2 but with no berth at Red Bull’s second F1 team was sent off to Japan to drive top-tier single-seaters there. Straight away, Iwasa targeted the title with Team Mugen.

He qualified 11th and finished ninth on his debut at Suzuka, then at Autopolis finished second from pole and at Sportsland SUGO started and finished second. Iwasa missed out on pole by just 0.017s at Fuji Speedway, but fell to 11th on lap one and never recovered from there.

At Twin Ring Motegi he climbed from 13th on the grid to seventh, and in the first race of the Fuji double-header took another second place. The next day was tricky, qualifying 12th and finishing sixth, which put him on the backfoot for Suzuka’s season-ending double-header.

Another front row start for race one, ahead of all of his title rivals, was the perfect base to boost his title hopes from but a technical gremlin left him stranded on the grid. From 20th place, he recovered to ninth in the 31-lap race but was now out of title contention. A “very big frustration” followed as he qualified 11th for race two, had to completely rethink his set-up and could only finish seventh.

He ended the season fifth in the standings, and following that Iwasa made an F1 practice and test outing with RB. But he didn’t do enough to earn a seat with the team, and Honda chose to renew his contract with Mugen instead.

3. Theo Pourchaire FRANCE 21y/o
25th in SF, 28th in IndyCar   2023: F2 champion (1 W, 2 P, 2 FL)   2022: 2nd in F2 (3 W)   2021: 5th in F2 (2 W, 1 P, 3 FL)

Photo: McLaren

Photo: James Black

Pourchaire has already had his mental health tested during his career, but the ups-and-downs of 2024 was a whole new level.

The 2023 F2 champion was sent off to SF by long-time backer Sauber, but only lasted one race there before being left without a race campaign and just his F1 reserve driver duties (which didn’t lead to any free practice appearances).

Then McLaren needed a stand-in driver for IndyCar due to David Malukas being injured, and Pourchaire was handed a brilliant chance to prove himself at single-seaters’ top level and scrub his SF cameo from his mind.

He finished 11th on debut in the Long Beach GP, having never driven an Indy car prior to the weekend, and McLaren used him again at Barber Motorsports Park. The results weren’t good, but internally McLaren was impressed and dropped Malukas to sign Pourchaire (who wasn’t bringing budget) for the rest of the year bar the Indy 500 due to him having no oval experience.

Still only 20, Pourchaire thought he may have found a new racing home and relocated to the USA. He finished 19th on IMS’s road course, kept a cool head while others crashed in Detroit to qualify seventh and finish 10th, then was 13th at Road America. Siegel came along after that and took the seat, and Pourchaire tried to keep his head up.

McLaren still rated him, and when an injured Alexander Rossi withdrew from racing in Toronto there was an obvious stand-in.

“Last-minute call, 10-hour flight, six hours of jet lag, almost no sleep, first time driving in six weeks, straight to qualifying & new track. That’s a lot of problems to manage, but we made it work with McLaren!” he beamed afterwards. “From 26 to 14th in the race here in Toronto, by far the craziest experience of my life.”

Upon the expiry of his 2024 contract with Sauber, Pourchaire was announced as Peugeot’s test and development driver in WEC after he impressed in a hypercar test. He will find out next year if his signature is still wanted in F1 and IndyCar.

2. Jonny Edgar BRITAIN 20y/o
ELMS champion (1 W), 30th in IMSA LMP2   2023: 13th in FIA F3 (1 W)   2022: 12th in FIA F3 (2 FL)   2021: 18th in FIA F3

Photo: Marcel Wulf

Photo: FocusPackMedia - Jan Patrick Wagner

Edgar’s name was mentioned so many times in ELMS commentary this year, as AO by TF Sport went on a title charge.

Like Leclerc, he was able to soak up the experience of team-mates Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica, who had already won ELMS and WEC titles together. Yet another crown was clearly the aim for those two, and Edgar stepped up to the plate.

He couldn’t outpace his team-mates in qualifying, but that’s nothing to be ashamed of given the standard they were setting, and in races he was strong wheel-to-wheel and also able to handle lapping traffic without too much trouble. The worst result came on his debut, as the crew lost a lap due to pitstop timing in relation to a safety car period.

They finished third at Paul Ricard, Edgar battled for second through the first two stints at Imola and his team-mates were able to retain the position, and at Spa the trio took victory from pole. The points leaders finished fifth at Mugello, and coming through the choatic Algarve finale in second place was more than enough to deliver the title.

Edgar warmed up for his ELMS campaign by racing an LMP2 car at Daytona and Sebring, and in the latter he was driving for the final stint in the middle of the night. He passed more experienced drivers to finish fourth in class, 7.603s off victory. For 2025, Edgar will continue in IMSA’s LMP2 class while also driving a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R for TF Sport in WEC.

1. Christian Rasmussen DENMARK 24y/o
22nd in IndyCar, Daytona 24H LMP2 winner    2023: Indy Nxt champion (5 W, 5 P, 5 FL), 11th in IMSA LMP2 (1 FL)

Photo: Christian Rasmussen

Unlike other IndyCar rookies, Rasmussen did not have a race-winning car at his disposal this season and so 22nd in the standings, with a single top-10 finish and three missed races as ECR team boss Ed Carpenter took over his car for several oval races, made him the most impressive newcomer to single-seaters’ top level.

Although Mid-Ohio was where his best results came, as he qualified eighth and finished ninth, there were other events where he made more of an impact. At Barber he was in fourth before his final pitstop, a mechanical issue forced him to retire in Detroit after a brilliant cool-headed race spent mostly fighting for seventh or eighth place.

When Rasmussen did get to drive on ovals, he also impressed in the races. At the Indy 500 he was one of many Chevrolet-powered drivers who had engine issues in qualifying, but from 24th on the grid finished 12th and only 5.3s behind the winner in a 200-lap race that ran green through its final quarter. He ran as high as fourth, and never lower than 22nd.

In race one around the Milwaukee Mile he did go a lap down but also got up to sixth place and ultimately finished 11th. He was one of few drivers actually able to make overtakes in the final stint. The next day (after yet another engine change copped him a grid penalty) he ran his first lap in a podium position, but finished 16th after being one of several drivers who ended up on a very bad seven-stop strategy.

Rasmussen concluded his season with a 14th place, and before making his debut he also won the LMP2 class at Daytona.

Not long after the IndyCar season ended, ECR announced a multi-year deal for Rasmussen be one of its full-time drivers.

The post Formula Scout’s Class of 2023 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Jacob Abel

Jacob Abel and Hunter McElrea have recently done IndyCar tests as they seek to impress teams and earn race outings in 2025.

Chip Ganassi Racing ran Abel at Texas Motor Speedway on November 13, and six days later McElrea drove for Ed Carpenter Racing in the group test at The Thermal Club.

Abel came 13th in Formula Regional Oceania and then second in Indy Nxt this year, winning three races in IndyCar’s primary feeder series.

“Anytime you get in a race car and have the ability to prove yourself to some of the biggest, most important names in the sport, there’s always a little bit of pressure attached to that,” Abel said of his test call-up with Ganassi.

“But I think that’s something that I personally thrive under, and it’s something that I really embrace and want to succeed more than ever when in those big pressure situations.”

He added: “[In advance I was] working with the team, being in the shop for the weeks leading up to it and getting all of the knowledge I can from races in the past there [as Texas] and all things like that. Just utilising all the resources that they have at their disposal made it super easy to get up to speed quickly.

“I just really wanted to deliver to the team everything that that they wanted to get out of me because they did give me such a such an awesome opportunity.”

A week before his Texas run, which totaled nearly 250 laps of the 1.5-mile oval, Abel tested with Dale Coyne Racing at Sebring.

“I think days like Wednesday just motivate me to work even harder to get back in the seat,” Abel said. “I feel like I did a really good job. The team and everyone around me told me I did a very good job. But at the end of the day, if I’m not in the seat to be able to prove that to the rest of the world, it doesn’t really matter.

“I think I am ready for that step. Anytime I get a taste of IndyCar, it just motivates me even more to work harder out of the seat, to put something together, to hopefully make the step up next year for a full season.”

McElrea was second fastest in IndyCar’s group test, only behind former Formula 1 driver and three-time IMSA champion Felipe Nasr.

“Back in IndyCar!” an elated McElrea said afterwards. “Mega day, thank you so much to ECR for the opportunity. Car was fast, P1 in the AM session and P2 overall. Had so much fun! Hopefully not too long until next time.”

The Kiwi was the 2023 Indy Nxt runner-up and made his IndyCar debut with Coyne in Toronto this year. He is pursuing further outings for 2025.

His primary programme through 2024 was IMSA, where he came 18th in the LMP2 class with with TDS Racing. He won two races, and has been retained by the team for 2025.

The post Abel and McElrea do IndyCar tests as they look for places on grid appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Ed Carpenter Racing launched its junior team in 2022, signing Josh Pierson and announcing a plan to get him in IndyCar by 2025. That target date is now being relaxed.

Pierson was signed after coming third in the World Endurance Championship’s LMP2 class, and with no single-seater experience above USF2000. He was sent to Indy Nxt on a two-year programme, but did less than two thirds of the 2023 season and had a best finish of sixth. This year will be his first full campaign, and was set to be his last.

The 18-year-old says ECR’s plan continues to be getting him in IndyCar next year, “but we have made some leeway there”.

“I’m kind of looking to Ed [Carpenter, ECR’s team boss]. ‘Hey, Ed, am I ready? Am I not?’. What’s his thought process? I don’t want to rush it. I want it to be precise, I want it to be the right move, the right decision. So I’m not going to rush it. And if Ed says I’m ready and we try make something happen, then that’s great.

“But if he says I’m not, and we have to look towards Indy Nxt or something else in the future, then that’s fine as well. I just want to make sure that I’m ready to go to IndyCar, and it’s not making a sporadic decision just to meet the deadline that we set.”

Pierson added that “it’s hard to say” what Carpenter’s criteria is for him being IndyCar-ready.

“Do you quantify it being the championship win in Indy Nxt? Do you quantify it being something that he sees in the data or my driving and says ‘hey, wow, that’s really good, that looks quality enough to go to IndyCar’. What is the fine line?” he said.

“I think it’s really a combination of a lot of things: better results in Indy Nxt, being a more consistent frontrunner in Indy Nxt, and also them seeing improvements in my data, in my video, in my driving. And then also having a shine in an Indy car. A chance to show what I’m worth in the actual car.”

Pierson reckons ECR has not provided specifics as “they didn’t want to put that pressure on”, and is liking that it is providing “more time to learn, more time to adapt” as a result.

“I’m not too concerned about making it happen for next year. Am I ready or not? I guess only time will tell.”

Pierson says ECR has “done lots of really good stuff” for him so far, including providing simulator time, and anticipates this year he will do an IndyCar test.

“Last year I was on the pit box at almost all the races, listening in, usually with the #20 car. This year should be the same, and I’m going to be making more of an effort this year to, in between sessions, going over there, sitting in with debriefs, working with the team more. I’m very comfortable around Rinus [VeeKay] and Christian [Rasmussen, ECR’s drivers].”

The post ECR’s IndyCar plan for Josh Pierson now not pinned tightly on 2025 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Christian Rasmussen

The 2023 Indy Nxt champion has already secured a 2024 IndyCar programme; how easy was it to find a seat?

“It’s super cool for me to show that the ladder system works. Because that’s really how I’ve been able to to make this happen, is through the ladder system. I’m finally here, but the work doesn’t stop now. It’s going to be full push to also own my spot in IndyCar and prove myself there.”

Christian Rasmussen has done everything a young driver can to earn a seat in IndyCar, winning the USF2000, USF Pro 2000 and Indy Nxt championships in view of the teams from the top tier and impressing them in tests too. While the scholarship system on the Road to Indy may make it far easier to reach IndyCar than equivalent path to Formula 1 in Europe consisting of FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2, the level of demand for IndyCar seats right now still means it’s a hard job to get on the grid.

Next year Rasmussen will race for Ed Carpenter Racing, contesting the 12 road and steet course races (including the non-championship Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge) and the Indianapolis 500, but missing five other oval races.

The 23-year-old Dane said he ‘kind of had to’ treat his first test with ECR like a job interview, trying “to communicate the best I can and get to know everybody”. It did the trick when team boss Ed Carpenter later made the decision on who he would sign.

“Ed reached out to me about the test, and it’s just been very natural. We have some mutual acquaintances and through that we have kind of developed a relationship. So we’ve been talking for a while,” explained Rasmussen when his IndyCar deal was announced last month. “He has been figuring out what we could do for this year, and finally got a deal together.”

He added: “We were pursuing that [ECR test] before anything else. And it seemed like seats were filling up super, super quick as well. You know how silly season works in IndyCar. I had this opportunity early on, and thought it would be a great fit for me and pursued that, did the test, and it just kind of kind of worked out from there.”

Photo: James Black

When Rasmussen says early, he actually clarifies to Formula Scout that he means the opposite given his season finished on September 10 and IndyCar silly season was in full swing by then.

“We started those [IndyCar] talks fairly late. I had to go win the championship before I kind of knew what I was working with. I’m out of a very regular family that can’t always come up with with the budgets necessary to take that step. Especially being my rookie year in IndyCar, it’s hard to come without any budget at all.

“So I had to wait until I won the championship. And then I could see what what I had to deal with and then take it from there. I got the opportunity with the testing for Ed fairly soon after I won the championship at Laguna Seca.”

Although “the work starts now and we’ve got to get ready for the season”, Rasmussen doesn’t know how much testing he will do before his debut. His hope is “some days during December” to drive, and already knows what “I need to work on” in the car.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge, learning even more and improving myself as a racecar driver,” he said. “It’ll be a learning curve for sure, but I’m excited for it.”

Looking back at the Indy Nxt title (which featured five race wins and five poles) that put him in contention for an IndyCar seat, what did he do differently in 2023 to improve on his run to sixth in the standings as a rookie last year?

“I took some great experiences from my year with Andretti on how to run a championship at this level and not to panic early on when things might not go your way. So applying that to my 2023 campaign was good and that’s ultimately what what got us the championship.”

He went into more detail on that: “I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons through my career, and it’s all about applying those for the following year. This year has been super good. We’ve been able to take a step back and take the results that we were given, even on the days that weren’t great for us. Then take the top-five result, top-six result, whenever you can.

Photo: Travis Hinkle

“I think a lot of those lessons came from my first year in Indy Nxt. And it was good for me personally to see how well I could apply that to this year.

“So again, putting another layer on that, learning from this year, applying all those lessons to next year is going to be important. The same thing in the future. I’m going to put another layer on for my first year of IndyCar, and I’m just going to improve and see how it all ends up. But it’s all about keep improving. I’m a big believer of that. There’s always something that you can improve on yourself.”

Rasmussen came third in Danish Formula 4 in 2017, then relocated his career to the USA. He came third in its national F4 championship before joining the Road to Indy. The logic behind crossing the Atlantic was asking the question “where do I have the biggest opportunity to make a professional career for myself with using the least amount of money possible?”, and “I’m sitting here, some some years down the road and don’t regret that decision one bit”.

Driving in IndyCar’s support series has crucially meant experience of its wide variety of tracks, and Rasmussen wants to see how he ‘stacks up’ against his future opposition on road and street courses, and ovals once he gets to race on more of them. But he’s not thinking about the Indy 500 yet, since “to let that get in my head this early on might not be beneficial” and he still has a lot of work to do on “getting to know the team and get up to speed in the Indy car”.

However he is “looking very much forward to getting on a superspeedway [as] I’ve only done short ovals in my career”.

As for setting expectations on his rookie IndyCar campaign, Rasmussen thinks he’ll “take it as it comes”.

“I want to perform my best and get the best out of myself, get the best out of the team, and then we’ll see how how we stack up. It’s very hard to just set a certain position or a certain number on that [in advance], but we’ll see how it goes.”

Photo: Karl Zemlin

What attracted Carpenter to Rasmussen?

“I think his record speaks for itself, the wins and championships. It’s going to be fun having yet another young guy in the team keeping that energy level high. I think him and Rinus [VeeKay] are going to be a really good fit and complement each other well. And the biggest thing that we saw in the test day at Barber was just the natural ability and speed that he has.”

Carpenter, like Rasmussen, uses the word ‘excited’ to describe his driver embarking on his learning stage in IndyCar. On top of that, Carpenter’s “really excited for [finding out] what his ceiling is going to be”.

He’s clearly interested in the Dane’s potential, and sees “a talented guy that we thought is a great fit for our organisation, and that’s all it was about”. However it was not ‘all about’ that, since he admits Rasmussen’s Indy Nxt title win this year and the prize money that earned him to spend on IndyCar “plays a big factor”.

“I mean, there’s never just one single thing. Christian certainly did a good job with the test, but so did Oliver [Askew],” he said. “We just felt strongly as a group that Christian was the right choice for the team, and that’s the direction we went.”

Carpenter may strongly believe in Rasmussen’s potential, but announcing him on a part-time, one-year deal didn’t echo that.

“There’s options for it to be multiple year, so that’s the intent that this is more than a one-year project. If you look at our history, in most cases, we’ve tried to build on relationships and and grow them. I don’t think it would be fair to say we’re going to see Christian’s full potential after one year. It’s a jump. And I expect him to be strong, but we want to be able to capitalise on his talent for the long run. So that’s our intent.”

One way to speed up that learning proccess, particularly on ovals, would be to add more races to Rasmussen’s schedule.

Photo: Travis Hinkle

“I would say that it’s early enough that there’s always potential to to add to the programme that we have, if the situation presents itself, and over time and we’re able to do that. Certainly the long-term goal is to have him running a full-time schedule, so we’ll see how that develops.”

HMD Motorsports, the team that ran Rasmussen to the Indy Nxt title, has expressed interest in helping its former driver in IndyCar. Could Henry Malukas’s team get involved alongside ECR?

“Henry is a jovial guy. I’ve had many conversations with him. That’s not one that we’ve talked about,” says Carpenter. “But if that’s something he’s interested in doing, he’s always a guy that I like being around. So would be happy to have that conversation if he sees the recording of this.”

The post How Indy Nxt champion Rasmussen landed his IndyCar seat appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: IndyCar

Teams at racing’s top level having young driver development programmes or junior teams isn’t exclusive to F1, and is gradually becoming more common in IndyCar. Formula Scout finds out about the newest one  

Of Formula 1’s 10 teams, technically nine have structured ‘academies’ as they tend to be called now. In Super Formula the two engine suppliers have their own junior drivers and several teams also race in feeder series, while in IndyCar there is a mix as some teams hand-pick young drivers to back while others enter their own cars in Indy Nxt.

Back in 2019, Michael Andretti – who is now trying to take his Andretti Global team to F1 – complained about the lack of fellow IndyCar team owners involved in Indy Nxt, a series he had been running drivers in since 2005.

George Steinbrenner IV had gone from co-entering a car in the second tier with Andretti in 2018 to doing the same in IndyCar a year later, and had Colton Herta deliver him a win in his team’s second start, while Indy Nxt team Belardi Auto Racing co-ran one of Dale Coyne Racing’s cars at the 2019 and 2020 Indianapolis 500s. Teams were reaching up, not down.

Another example was Juncos Hollinger Racing, which joined the third-tier USF Pro 2000 series in 2009, expanded by stepping up to Indy Nxt in 2012 and then finally reached IndyCar in 2017. It is still active in the top two series today.

HMD Motorsports (formerly BN Racing) did something similar, taking the path drivers do up the Road to Indy by racing in USF2000, USFP2000, Indy Nxt and then IndyCar as of last year.

The other, more F1-esque model of having a junior team is taken by Andretti, Chip Ganassi Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, McLaren (since its driver development programme feeds its F1 and Formula E teams too) and in a roundabout way Team Penske. After team founder Roger Penske bought IndyCar itself, he put funding into the Force Indy programme that backs African American racers. Initially Force Indy entered cars in the feeder series, then became a driver development programme.

Photo: Travis Hinkle

The newest of these junior teams is ECR’s, which was launched last November with Josh Pierson [above] as its first member. He was put into Indy Nxt on a two-year plan, and it is that series’ reigning champion Christian Rasmussen who the team has recently signed to its 2024 IndyCar line-up.

Ed Carpenter, boss of the eponymous team, has a strong reputation for running young drivers in IndyCar. Although many point to his three years fielding future champion Josef Newgarden and turning him into a winner, the more recent and relevant example is Rinus VeeKay who took a pole position and made the podium as an IndyCar rookie with ECR.

“It’s one of the best parts about the job, working with our drivers,” Carpenter says. “And especially when we can bring young talent in, it’s a privilege to be a part of that in their development. It’s something that I’ve enjoyed over our time with ECR, working with quite a few guys coming out of Indy Nxt and and out of the ladder system, and epecially in recent years I think that programme has really been graduating guys that have what it takes to to compete at a high level in the IndyCar series.

“There’s definitely a learning curve, but at the same time people are coming out of it prepared and making a pretty immediate impact, you know, put in the right situation. So we’re excited to get started.”

Clearly Carpenter enjoys working with young drivers, but why does he think young drivers look towards his team when aiming to enter IndyCar?

“I think more than anything, we’ve just had a decent amount of experience working with younger guys over our 11 years. Josef was definitely a standout. Our goal is to find talent and nurture it, and keep it within our four walls, so to speak. And I think our strategy has been to look for talent coming out of of Indy Nxt, versus maybe taking another approach, which we’ve done also, and going after veterans.

“But I think there’s opportunity to get guys and help develop them and provide a environment that they want to be at. And we’ve seen that with Rinus, where we’ve had a healthy relationship and we’re through multiple contracts now and still building.

Photo: IndyCar

“So that’s the long-term plan with Christian is to have him reach his potential and us get stronger as a team, and have all of us achieve our goal of winning Indy 500s and competing for championships.”

At many IndyCar events there are three rungs of the Road to Indy in action, meaning drivers can be spotted in their very first years of car racing by teams at the top level. Over in Europe you have to reach Formula 3 before regularly racing on the support bill of F1, although its teams send out scouts to Formula 4 and even karting to find drivers to back.

“I think if you’re here at a racetrack and go look at pitlane during an Indy Nxt race or even even the other series below, you’re going to see a lot of IndyCar personnel out there paying attention,” notes Carpenter.

“That’s a big advantage to drivers coming over and being a part of it, that have a desire to get to IndyCar or the Indy 500, that you’re racing in front of us and going over to the same venues and getting a lot of experience at the race tracks that we go to. So I think it’s a big advantage just to perform in front of us.

“And there’s a little more comfort in evaluating drivers that you see versus not having as much deep knowledge of the series in Europe. It can be more challenging to evaluate guys. And on top of that, you look at the history of Indy Nxt, and the level of drivers that have graduated out of it are proving to be championship calibre at the IndyCar level and capable of doing that, winning Indy 500s and competing at a high level. Some of the top drivers in our sport right now came out of that programme.”

Formula Scout asked Carpenter how his junior team differs structurally from those in F1 and the likes of Ganassi’s, and more importantly if he was seeking to add any more drivers to join Pierson in its fold.

“I mean, we’re always looking at guys,” he replied. “We’re probably a little different than Andretti, especially since they’ve got their own Indy Nxt team. But you’re always trying to identify guys and work on relationships. So I would say we kind of take it as a case-by-case basis at this point, but I’m definitely in tune with with what’s going on in those series and always trying to keep an eye on future talent and figuring out how we can align ourselves, in certain cases.

Photo: Chris Jones

“I’ve always had an interest in [entering cars in] that series. It would be great some day to participate in that level as well. But the timing just hasn’t been right for it to be an active participant. But I do greatly believe in the Road to Indy, and the success that it’s had, and happy to give guys opportunities out of it.”

“I wouldn’t say we have a formal structured programme where that’s any one person’s sole duty. It’s not the way we’re structured, but multiple people within our team are involved in that process.”

Aside from Carpenter himself, “Lee Bentham, who has been a driver coach with us from day one, is always a part of that process” for scouting young drivers, and other members of ECR’s leadership team utilise their “relationships in the paddock” to find out about rising talents.

“I wouldn’t say we have a formal structured programme where that’s any one person’s sole duty. It’s not the way we’re structured, but multiple people within our team are involved in that process.”

In summary: “It really comes down to just relationships and watching and meeting people, and being advantageous.”

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