With Meyer Shank Racing set to leave Andretti Technologies at the end of the season to align with Chip Ganassi Racing as its new technical service provider, Andretti Global COO Rob Edwards says the end of the road with MSR could be the end of the line in the short term for the team’s technical alliances.
“The relationship with MSR has been unique in the level of trust and cooperation and just transparency and everything working with Mike and Jim,” Edwards told RACER. “So I don’t think we’re looking to do another technical relationship just for the sake of doing something.”
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Forged in 2017 by Mike Shank with Andretti Global, Andretti fielded MSR’s first IndyCar effort as an additional entry at the Indianapolis 500, and a few years later, the relationship — with new co-owner Jim Meyer included — resumed when MSR hired Andretti Technologies to lead its engineering efforts with people and componentry.
With the contract up at the end of the season, and with the Honda-powered MSR wanting to ensure its IndyCar technical support remains with a Honda-powered team, the decision was made to engage Ganassi in a new multi-year deal.
From Andretti’s side, Edwards says the ongoing rumors regarding Andretti’s switch from Honda to Chevrolet engines in IndyCar are unfounded, and with MSR’s impending exit, the roster of candidates for a new alliance is rather slim at the moment.
“Despite the paddock rumor that we’re about to change to a new manufacturer, we’re not about to change to a new manufacturer,” he said. “And so candidly, that limits the pool of potential technical partners. At this point, there are no plans to do another technical partnership. But that doesn’t mean it’s not something that we don’t believe has value. We’re just not sure that the right partner is necessarily out there at the moment.”