Prema Racing has completed the driver line-up for its first foray into IndyCar, with Ferrari and Sauber Formula 1 reserve Robert Shwartzman joining Callum Ilott for 2025.
Shwartzman, 25, has developed one of the most diverse resumes of any F1 candidate in recent years and has been with the Prema family since 2018, making him an obvious choice. He also has IndyCar experience after a test with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2022.
He had been a long-shot candidate for the vacant seat at Sauber in F1 next year, but will ultimately head to North America for a new challenge including the Indianapolis 500 and ovals.
“IndyCar is a very competitive series, with so many strong drivers, and I’m looking forward to the racing, as it looks really cool,” said Shwartzman.
“I have never driven on ovals and to master them, it will be a completely new challenge.
“However, with Prema we achieved a lot in the past, and I think that my F1 and endurance experience will be helpful to make us evolve fast and get up to speed quickly.”
Shwartzman’s had a fascinating career, which has included championship wins, success, tragedy and crisis. Here’s everything you need to know about him.
This deal wasn’t straightforward
Shwartzman has long been the rumoured favourite for the Prema seat, but there’s a reason why Prema was able to announce Ilott much sooner. This may have been expected, but it was never given.
The delays have come through juggling demand for Shwartzman.
He’s had offers in Formula E, he’s already a Ferrari hypercar World Endurance Championship driver - a level not many Ferrari juniors have reached - and Mattia Binotto is a big fan, so when he took over at Sauber (which had an F1 seat going) that complicated things.
After Binotto arrived at Sauber in July, Shwartzman was handed two FP1 outings for the team, which could only have served to raise his hopes a F1 race deal was finally possible.
But no matter his resume, it’s been over three seasons since his runner-up finish in Formula 2, and ultimately Sauber now looks likely to choose Gabriele Bortoleto for 2025.
What kind of driver is he?
I first covered Shwartzman in 2019 - not a bad year to start as it coincided with his biggest title win to date in F3 - and his consistency is what struck me.
He’s never stood out as the fastest driver I have ever seen, but I know people have been wowed by how consistently he’s able to pump laps in, thousandths of a second apart.
It’s why he’s made such a good test, simulator and sportscar driver.
Almost everyone who reaches IndyCar is obviously fast, but Shwartzman’s from that Alex Palou mould of maybe not looking like the most extravagant, brutally quick driver but having a consistency to his driving that really pays off. Everything's precise, calculated and well under control.
It wouldn’t surprise me if those attributes are why Ganassi didn’t sign Shwartzman in 2022, because it’s hard to demonstrate that level of consistency in a one-day test at Sebring, which is probably also like driving upside down on fire compared to the tracks Shwartzman’s used to.
And by the way, he’ll still be absolutely rapid.
If Prema puts a decent car out, it has the perfect blend of drivers with Ilott and Shwartzman. Both are quick and consistent.
They haven't been team-mates, but raced against each other in F3, F2 and were both part of the Ferrari Academy, meaning they did plenty together when they both lived in Maranello.
His junior career
Shwartzman finished third in Italian F4 in his first full year of cars in 2015. He was third in a second season of Formula Renault Eurocup in 2017 and in 2018 he joined Prema in European Formula 3, where the first half of the year was hard going but a combo of Prema taking a step and Shwartzman delivering a strong end to the year delivered a brilliant final few races, with three wins in total.
He was excellent in 2019, as Prema was the outstanding team in the FIA F3 series (the GP3 replacement/successor on the F1 package). His consistency was clear in this fight where even clashes between him and team-mate Marcus Armstrong didn’t derail him.
How 2020 changed his life
It’s here you could probably pinpoint the downfall - or at least the beginning - of why he didn’t win F2 as a rookie or fire his way straight to F1.
Early in the year he lost his father suddenly. Such an event would rock any human to the core, but Shwartzman’s father had been such a large part of his racing life that it left a hole totally impossible to fill.
Shwartzman still managed fourth in the championship with four wins almost in defiance of the adversity he had faced, and followed that up with second to team-mate Oscar Piastri in 2021.
Losing to a team-mate was also costly in his bid for F1, but to come back from what he had faced the year before took enormous courage. And Piastri is not exactly a poor benchmark. Given what he's doing now, if you were close to him in the junior series you must be alright...
And when it comes to that 2025 F1 chance, bear in mind all Sauber driver decisions from here need to come with Audi's stamp of approval and it might need someone more 'fashionable' than a driver who hasn't raced a single-seater properly since 2021.
What has he been doing since?
Since 2022 Shwartzman has been a test and development driver and reserve for Ferrari. The team has been really happy with the work he has done there.
Then he's been working with Sauber, doing sim work and FP1s at Zandvoort and Mexico City.
The car is so poor that test and development work was the goal, and the Mexico outing came with multiple red flags and a DRS breakage, so the Sauber running hasn't really given him chance to shine.
He also impressed the DS Penske FE squad over two years as a test driver for it, but all of his racing experience has come in sportscars.
Shwartzman won a race in the GT World Challenge Europe series in 2023 as part of a five-race programme, before moving into one of the AF Corse Ferrari hypercars in the WEC this year.
He was part of the line-up that won the Austin WEC race, and was Ferrari’s fastest driver at Spa. He and team-mates Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye finished ninth in the championship.
Shwartzman hasn't blown people away in the prototype but has been up against experienced and respected team-mates in a category that can take time to adapt to and where like-for-like comparisons can be difficult given the variables involved.
What IndyCar means for his Ferrari deal
The Race understands Shwartzman will not remain a Ferrari test and development driver or a sportscar driver for it next year, effectively concluding the relationship - on good terms - at the end of 2024.
Shwartzman is believed to be in conversations about remaining an F1 reserve or test driver in some capacity around his IndyCar commitments.
Racing under Israeli colours
Eagle-eyed followers of junior single-seaters will have noted Shwartzman's flag has changed during his career.
Shwartzman races under the Israeli flag, having been born in Tel-Aviv, where his father came from. He has always had an Israeli passport.
In his junior days he had been part of the SMP Racing academy for Russian drivers which helped fund his career, and while he did spend time in St Petersburg, he moved to Italy aged 9. After the outbreak of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Shwartzman applied for an Israeli licence.
Guess Who? Teammate Edition 👥
— PREMA (@PREMA_Team) November 4, 2024
Ft.: @callum_ilott #PREMARacing #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/1HsfgmGaOA
2025 IndyCar driver line-up so far
AJ Foyt - Santino Ferrucci, David Malukas
Andretti - Marcus Ericsson, Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood
Arrow McLaren - Pato O'Ward, Christian Lundgaard, Nolan Siegel
Chip Ganassi - Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Kyffin Simpson
Dale Coyne - TBC x2
Ed Carpenter - Christian Rasmussen, Alexander Rossi
Juncos Hollinger - TBC x2
Meyer Shank - Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist
Prema Racing - Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman
Rahal Letterman Lanigan - Louis Foster, Graham Rahal, TBC
Team Penske - Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Will Power
