You know, whatever happens, that IndyCar will excite and thrill during the 2022 season.
The series is riding the crest of a wave with some exciting North American talent like Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward being linked to Formula 1, alongside an influx of impressive drivers from Europe that have climbed to the very top.
With plenty changing ahead of the 2022 season, we’ve run down the key areas you need to know about before the action kicks off at St Petersburg this weekend.
Driver changes
Of the changes, Romain Grosjean’s switch to Andretti has to be one of the most intriguing.
Along with ace engineer Olivier Boisson the pair will be trying to replicate the braking ability Grosjean was able to have in a stellar rookie year with Dale Coyne, while adding the consistency that comes with a big team like Andretti – a team he says has more impressive infrastructure than some F1 teams.
Having Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi and Grosjean in the same outfit – alongside Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves in the engineering debriefs via a team tie-up with Meyer Shank Racing – will be fascinating.
Elsewhere Jimmie Johnson’s Indy 500 debut will be hotly anticipated by those hoping it will open the event up to the much bigger NASCAR fanbase, while Takuma Salo’s move to Dale Coyne might give that team the edge it’s needed at that race in recent years.
Sato’s old team Rahal Letterman Lanigan perhaps enters as the biggest unknown after adding Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey. Harvey is yet to win but has shown flashes of brilliance, especially in qualifying, something Lundgaard did on his debut too by starting his maiden race fourth.
| Driver | Old team | New team | Last year |
| Tatiana Calderon | n/a | Foyt | 17th in WEC LMP2 |
| Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank (part-time) | Meyer Shank (full-time) | Won Indy 500 |
| Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter/Carlin | Ed Carpenter (full-time) | 18th in IndyCar |
| Devlin DeFrancesco | n/a | Andretti | 4th in Indy Lights |
| Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne (part-time) | Andretti (full-time) | 15th in IndyCar |
| Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | 13th in IndyCar |
| Jimmie Johnson | Ganassi (part-time) | Ganassi (full-time) | 26th in IndyCar |
| Kyle Kirkwood | n/a | Foyt | Indy Lights champion |
| Christian Lundgaard | n/a | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | 12th in F2 |
| David Malukas | n/a | Dale Coyne | 2nd in Indy Lights |
| Simon Pagenaud | Penkse | Meyer Shank | 8th in IndyCar |
| Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dale Coyne | 11th in IndyCar |
Rookies
Kyle Kirkwood is without a doubt one of the most intriguing propositions heading into this year. His three consecutive titles in the Road to Indy are unprecedented and he’s delivered one of the best junior resumes in racing history.
But he joins a Foyt team that has floundered in recent times, not able to become a regular top-10 threat despite the addition of underdog specialist Sebastien Bourdais last year. Big steps are needed.
David Malukas pushed Kirkwood all the way last year in Indy Lights but because his emergence has been so instantaneous, it’s hard to know what to expect. He’ll certainly be one of the most fun and charismatic drivers on the grid next year, and will have the chance at the odd shock alongside Sato at Coyne.
Tatiana Calderon marks a step back towards IndyCar’s representation for promoting female talent, but is only doing the road and street courses alongside Kirkwood at Foyt. She’s always been rapid in slow-speed corners but she’ll have to work on committing to the car in medium and high-speed stuff where the IndyCar can be skittish.
Despite racing last year, Callum Ilott and Lundgaard also qualify as rookies. Draw Ilott’s results out of a hat this year as the Juncos team, which has re-joined IndyCar, has had a completely new group of staff come in even since the end of last year. A technical tie-up with Carlin might help expedite its learning process.
Lundgaard has the best balance of team, talent and experience to take rookie of the year. He may be challenged by the experienced Devlin DeFrancesco, who slots into a plumb seat at Andretti but doesn’t have the resume of some of his rivals here.
Team changes
Team Penske will drop from four cars to three as it loses Simon Pagenaud to Meyer Shank, without replacing him.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan has made its third car permanent for Lundgaard, while Ganassi will have to run five cars at the Indy 500 as Tony Kanaan had a two-year contract to run the ovals in Jimmie Johnson’s car, but with the latter now also electing to run the ovals.
The future of the Carlin team is uncertain after four consecutive years of IndyCar competition. The team has joined with Juncos in a technical alliance but it is unclear as to whether it will race again in the series. It looks unlikely for 2022.
The Race has contacted Carlin and Max Chilton for comment, but neither have replied.
Elsewhere, Vasser Sullivan has pulled its co-entry with Dale Coyne, as it looks to fashion a full-time entry of its own for 2023. Jimmy Vasser told The Race “not to be surprised” if it entered the Indy 500 as a co-owner though.
While not strictly IndyCar, Coyne has expanded its partnership with HMD and will co-own four of HMD’s Indy Lights cars in 2022.
Rule changes
A couple of what could be significant changes come in the pits. Crew members won’t be able to push the cars they’ve just serviced out of the pit boxes this year, removing a familiar sight in the series.
Sticking with pit boxes, they will be allocated to the drivers based on previous qualifying position this year, instead of previous race finish.
This may give good qualifiers like Colton Herta an edge and prove costly for those typically struggling in that area, like Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson. The change might be negligible at most tracks though.
IndyCar has also added the ability to disable the push-to-pass system for drivers who are a lap down, in a bid to find a halfway house of letting drivers fight to stay on the lead lap while not holding leaders up too much.
Race control will also be able to use a new, F1-like system for flags this year. LED boards at 20 locations and more info on the driver’s dash should help to improve safety. Also, in the event of local yellow flags, drivers will automatically lose that lap in a move aiming to “expedite session officiating”. Incidents of the contrary were common in 2021.
On the car itself, bargeboards that were tested at Texas last year but only used at Indianapolis will be available to be used on the former. Not like what is labelled an F1 bargeboard, these are like fins which sit underneath eachside pod and extend out from the floor. They were used by most cars at the Indy 500 last year although they are optional.
A short-track specific version will be available for Iowa and Gateway too.
In terms of scheduling, IndyCar has blocked out more time to make sure that session delays don’t mean ending 45-minute road and street course sessions incomplete.
Engineers
The big move this year is that Gavin Ward leaves Penske and Josef Newgarden’s car in favour of a technical director-style role at Arrow McLaren SP.
The inhabitant of the job previously, Craig Hampson, will move to engineer Felix Rosenqvist, which could be huge for the Swede’s recovery from a tricky 2022.
Ex-Red Bull aerodynamicist Ward has experience in electronics alongside general race engineering too, so should be an enormous benefit for the team.
Replacing Ward at Penske is expected to be ex-Pratt Miller programme chief Eric Leichtle, although it’s fair to say there has been a late revolving of personnel and a lack of public confirmation about the engineering line-up at the team.
Elsewhere, Boisson has moved across from Dale Coyne with Grosjean, and he will be joined by Josh Freund as strategist on that car. Also at Andretti, it looks like COO Rob Edwards won’t fulfil his long-term duties as Rossi’s strategist this time, with that role being taken by Brian Barnhart.
Andretti has brought Andy Listes back from Meyer Shank to work with DeFrancesco, while Ray Gosselin, Ryan Hunter-Reay’s engineer, has taken up an intriguing role with Ilmor in Chevrolet’s IndyCar programme after so many years at the Honda-powered Andretti.
The calendar
The most exciting change on the calendar appears to be the reinstatement of short oval Iowa, which will host a double-header helped along by Bobby Rahal and team sponsor Hy-Vee coming onboard.
Even Google has backed the event now, adding to the momentum.
‼️BIG NEWS‼️@DoorDash, @Google and @PepsiCo join the @HyVee @INDYCAR Race Weekend team as sponsors for the July 22-24 festival at @IowaSpeedway.@jack_harvey45, driver of the No. 45 Hy-Vee car for @RLLracing, welcomes our new partners!
Details Here: https://t.co/kycGteBoYd pic.twitter.com/dzVESnZkjf
— Hy-Vee INDYCAR Weekend (@INDYCARatIowa) February 16, 2022
Racing will return to downtown Detroit as well, which will please 1980s Formula 1 fans no doubt, with the event moving from Belle Isle.
Elsewhere, Toronto is finally due to return after a COVID-enforced two season hiatus of one of the series most popular events.
Chevy v Honda
Many will mark this down as a dead year for the manufacturer battle, but both Chevrolet and Honda are desperate to sign off the 2.2-litre engine era started in 2012 with a win.
Whatever happens Chevrolet will end with the most manufacturer titles but Honda is on a four-year win streak and both want to claim the honours of being the last to win in the naturally-aspirated era as we switch to hybrids in 2023.
Despite the usual supply and demand issue with parts, expect to see the two marques’ 2023 engines on track in the first half of the year, perhaps as early as March but potentially slightly later.
There are no carryover parts and both teams have had plenty of dyno running. It will be fascinating to see what they have produced given the opportunity for a blank-paper design and knowing this is the best and only time to develop some parts before freezes begin to kick in in the years to come.
2023 silly season
It might feel too early to be discussing the 2023 silly season but it’s believed the fact that talks have already started, and it impacts 2022 because some drivers are racing for results that will give them a step up or keep them where they are.
Rossi is the big name on offer. He was the darling of the 2020 silly season pursued by Penske and Andretti, but a three-year Andretti deal has been followed up with two winless seasons heading into the third.
Rinus VeeKay could race into the minds of the top teams, too. He’s so young but has already won a race and shown the peaks he’s capable of. Sadly that’s come with a lot of inconsistency, too, and a more level 2022 is needed to persuade someone like Penske taking a punt on him, which isn’t out of the equation.
