Michael Andretti’s departure from Andretti International shook the world of racing in September.
Within the wake of the transfer that noticed group associate and investor Dan Towriss take management of the enterprise that spans a number of home and worldwide championships, questions relating to the group’s future and whether or not extra modifications are on the best way have arisen.
Practically one month after the change happened, longstanding Andretti COO Rob Edwards shared an array of insights in regards to the enterprise, its core NTT IndyCar Sequence program, and what’s within the works for 2025.
Will the group bear a reputation change?
“No, you’ll proceed to see Andretti International,” Edwards advised RACER.
How may the group behind the three-car squad that includes Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, and Marcus Ericsson look completely different when it returns subsequent season?
“I feel it’s going to look very, similar to the way it was at Nashville,” Edwards stated of the season finale received by Herta. “On the engineering aspect, we haven’t essentially added employees, however with the Meyer Shank technical relationship not persevering with, we have been eager to maintain some actually good folks within the fold, and so we have now discovered different tasks, IndyCar-related, or non-IndyCar-related, for these of us. After which we’re including focused crew.”
Andretti allotted Dave Seyfert to engineer Felix Rosenqvist’s Meyer Shank Racing entry and assigned Ron Barhorst to engineer the second MSR automotive. The pair did an distinctive job, which made discovering new in-house roles a worthy effort.
IndyCar’s upcoming calendar, which packs 17 races into 5 months and 29 days — from March 2 at St. Petersburg by way of August 29 at Nashville Speedway — has impressed Edwards to hunt extra mechanics and group personnel to assist take care of the busy schedule. Whether or not it’s utilizing further employees to expedite automotive preparations or to spell these in want of a break, the transfer is one that may probably be carried out by plenty of groups within the IndyCar paddock.
AutoNation is considered closing down its motorsport sponsorships, which would go away Andretti International needing to discover a new associate for its No.27 Honda. Motorsport Pictures
“If you take a look at the schedule subsequent 12 months, clearly the excellent news is that we’re on FOX,” he stated. “The difficult half is that from the time we begin racing to the time which we cease racing could be very compressed, and so I believe that the entire prime groups are taking a look at what meaning by way of turnaround, being ready, ensuring that we have now the flexibility to get better from issues that we don’t prefer to occur, however everyone knows do occur typically, and so forth.
“So there’s some restructuring and a few additions to the crew on the vehicles and including some extra depth to that space. And as I say, on the engineering aspect, it’s actually reallocating a few of the useful resource that was at Meyer Shank.”
The group has additionally added a number of folks to its advertising and marketing and gross sales division, which is one other essential improvement for Andretti International’s IndyCar effort. Amongst its three entries, two are sponsored by corporations managed by Towriss in Gainbridge and Delaware Life, and automotive retailer AutoNation has been main sponsor on the No. 27 automotive pushed by Kyle Kirkwood in recent times.
Though it stays unconfirmed, RACER understands AutoNation, which has supported vehicles in Components 1, NASCAR, IMSA, and IndyCar with Andretti’s No. 27 and Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Honda, is ending its motor racing sponsorships. The exit would go away Andretti and MSR with vital funding voids to fill, and to that finish, Edwards didn’t delve into the matter.
“That’s a query finest for Dan, to be trustworthy, as a result of that’s not the a part of the enterprise that I spend most of my time on,” he stated. “However sure, there’s a plan and a few objectives for subsequent 12 months on the on the enterprise and industrial aspect.”
Of the opposite questions associated to Andretti International’s fast future, rumors about fielding a part-time IndyCar program for Jamie Chadwick, who spent two seasons within the Andretti Indy NXT camp and received a race final season, have made the rounds in current months.
“She is not going to be coming again to do Indy NXT once more,” Edwards stated. “She and her group determined that having completed two years of Indy NXT, and with nearly all of her funding is from the UK, doing extra NXT is a little bit of a problem. I do know there was some conversations about doing chosen races in IndyCar. Candidly, for us, we really feel we made good points this 12 months with three vehicles and a extra targeted method. So we might not be speeding to do something exterior of that. Immediately from Jamie and her administration group, we have no idea precisely what she’s planning on doing.”
Edwards closed the dialog by confirming the group would proceed its observe of fielding an additional automotive on the Indianapolis 500 however declined to reply whether or not the automotive’s conventional driver — Marco Andretti — can be making his twentieth try to win ‘The Biggest Spectacle In Racing.’
“We’ll run an additional entry at Indy; that’s within the plan,” Edwards stated. “And I’ll in all probability not say the rest past that.”
