Q: Will we ever see Simon Pagenaud again as active driver in IndyCar? Or, somehow associated with a team as driver coach, etc.?
Tom Fitzgerald, CPA, Las Vegas, NV
MP: If he fully recovers, yes, but we’re talking about an Indy 500 scenario, where he’s excellent, and nothing more. Not because he lacks the skills, but because he’s 40, and too much time has passed for him to be considered a top free agent coming off of a life-altering injury.
It’s a part of the sport I hate, but it’s just the reality of the situation. Simon was not having a great season when the brake failure happened and ended his year. The rough showings prior to the crash weren’t all his fault by any means, but that’s what potential employers remember — an unmemorable season, then a scary crash, then being unable to race for 1.5 seasons and counting — as they consider who to hire for the future. Just a cruel outcome for one of the series’ true good guys.
He did do some driver coaching this year, assisting Scott McLaughlin on the ovals.
Q: Hearing Robert Shwartzman will drive a PREMA car. Is there no longer a ban on Russian athletes?
Jean Dauwalter
MP: IndyCar sanctions itself, and I’ve yet to hear of IndyCar banning Russian drivers. Robert was born in Israel, and holds multiple passports.
Q: Could the charter system make it more difficult to field 33 entries in May? It seems that a non-charter one-off entry would be truly that – a one-off for Indy only, with little realistic hope of graduating to full time status based on that experience. It seems that a charter system increases the hurdle for graduation to full-time status so there is less incentive to start small (at Indy) and build toward something bigger.
Stated differently, why assemble a whole team and spend all that money to finish poorly at Indy with a one-off entry that has little hope of becoming anything more? It seems that only the 10 chartered teams could realistically field one-off cars in May because only they’d have the necessary infrastructure in place and could spread the cost of that one-off entry across multiple cars. Am I reading this wrong?
Tom, Lake Forest
MP: You’re reading it correctly, but I don’t think the 500 will suffer for adequate car counts. The charter isn’t welcoming to new Indy-only entrants, but if there’s a drop-off in those entrants, the full-time teams have more than enough cars to compensate with extra entries of their own.
Q: St. Petersburg is just about dead center in the hurricane path. Any word from Green Savoree? Can they recover in six months to make the St. Pete race happen? Or are they just monitoring the situation and will make a decision in a month or two once they have a clear idea of the extent of the damage?
John
MP: The promoter needs to see what the city decides to do before it would be able to make any proclamations, so no, we haven’t heard from them since they can only react to decisions by the city.
Q: Having just read Michael Andretti’s open letter to the fans, I’m not buying completely into his ‘time to step back’ answer.
1) The letter sounds like something from the PR department more than something from his heart.
2) All the time, effort and millions for an F1 bid only to step back now while the team moves forward? I just don’t see it, that’s not Michael.
3) Not seeing Michael at the track on a race by race basis amd only from time to time… my take is the entire Andretti family lives to race.
Unless there is something family- or health-related, it just does not add up and looks like a financial power play by his partner when the opportunity presented itself.
Any idea if Marco be running for Andretti Global at Indy in May, or for someone else like Dreyer & Reinbold, as that would be telling?
My “stranger things have happened” for 2025 is that Andretti Global changes its team name and Michael Andretti buys into or forms another racing team for IndyCar and the F1 bid moves on without him.
Dave, Gahanna, OH
MP: I’m sure there’s a healthy non-compete clause Michael would need to clear before a return would be possible. Regarding Marco, scroll down to the next question.
Q: How does, or will, the change in ownership/structure impact Marco Andretti’s Indy 500 effort? Will they still support a single-car entry for Marco?
Brian Davis
MP: I’ve heard nothing to suggest the team won’t run Marco in May.
Q: The renderings of the Arlington track are pretty sharp. Just hope in real life it works out better than the airport rental car return queue they threw up in the parking lot of the abandoned Astrodome in Houston.
Shawn, MD
MP: Same here.
Q: Are you still “not buying” Michael’s exit plan even after his letter? It just seems like a hostile takeover.
RGS, Geneseo, NY
MP: Correct, my opinion hasn’t changed. But at the same time, I’m not sure how much the truth matters here. The truth won’t change what’s happened, nor is Michael destitute. If this is the story he wants to tell, that’s his right.