PREMA including charter prospects in its IndyCar plans
PREMA Racing has yet to enter an IndyCar Series race, but that hasn’t stopped the Italian team from trying to secure its future in the American open-wheel series.
RACER has learned the Formula 2 and European junior series organization owned by Rene Roisin and managed by Angelina Ertsou has made outreaches to multiple teams to inquire if they would be willing to sell their future charters to PREMA.
Expected to be launched later this month, IndyCar plans to issue 25 charters to its existing teams that would, among the perks, provide guaranteed starting positions at most races, barring the Indianapolis 500, and grant those 25 entries — the 25 charter cars invited into the club — the exclusive ability to earn a $1 million annual stipend from Penske Entertainment if they place inside the top 22 in the entrants’ championship.
Penske Entertainment also intends to place a 27-car cap on its starting grid at the majority of its races, which would thrust PREMA’s new two-car Chevrolet-powered team into a fight to qualify for and take part in those events. At 27 full-time cars in 2024, and a strong likelihood of that number carrying over into 2025, PREMA would be the 28th and 29th entries, leaving its pair and Chip Ganassi Racing’s two newest entries to vie for the 26th and 27th starting spots on a regular basis.
Without charters, PREMA will face an uphill battle to out-qualify the reigning, 11-time IndyCar champions at Ganassi, and as such, PREMA IndyCar CEO Piers Phillips has been busy trying to find a seller once charters are issued.
“Well, that’s certainly not untrue,” Phillips told RACER. “As you would imagine, since the announcement, myself and Rene have just been assessing those situations. It would be remiss of us to not turn over every stone and just see what the opportunities are. But those conversations have been short. At the moment, we’re just literally evaluating to see where everybody sits.
“I think there’s a window of change coming over the next few years in a positive way with what Roger [Penske] has done through Penske Entertainment, how they’ve stabilized the championship and how the championship’s grown. I can see a significant change in the level of IndyCar both off track and on track. And it’s my job to make sure that where we’re on the engine leaving the station, not trying to jump on the last carriage once it’s gone.”
PREMA is rumored to have offered $1 million per charter, which would serve as the first known attempt to place a transactional value on the memberships to the club. One team owner who received an inquiry and offer, and asked not to be identified, felt the number needed to be 10 times what was proposed, at a minimum.
Phillips says PREMA’s IndyCar announcement has led to an overwhelming response from those in the industry who want to be part of the program.
“I think in the first 10 days, I had over 5000 messages, whether it was emails, text messages, LinkedIn; it was ridiculous,” he added.
Some IndyCar teams have privately expressed frustration at PREMA’s efforts to recruit within the paddock, but Phillips pushed back at those allegations.
“I can tell you categorically, my moral compass points north and I wouldn’t do that to anybody else,” he said. “We’ve had interest globally, not just from IndyCar, but from F1, F2, from NASCAR, from LMDH, from all sorts of engineering companies. We don’t need to be reaching out to people. As you can imagine a lot of the contacts we’ve received, you swipe left because they’re not going to bring the energy that I want to the organization. But we haven’t reached out to any personnel at any team, I can assure you that, 100 percent.
“And quite honestly, I think if you look at the teams currently, and you look at the insecurity and the panic of organizations, making people sign non-compete [clauses] and giving people bonuses to keep them within the organization, I think that shows a massive insecurity. You should make your team and your culture a place where people want to walk through the door on a Monday morning and go and be part of that organization. That’s how we’re going to do things at PREMA. We’re going to do it differently from what I would consider the norm in IndyCar.”
Phillips closed on drivers, with the newly-available David Malukas joining other high-profile IndyCar free agents like Alexander Rossi from Arrow McLaren — a team Phillips once led — to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard — a driver he brought over from F2 — to Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay all sitting among the options for PREMA to consider.
“I think maybe half the IndyCar field has reached out to us, whether it’s about next year or future years, which is flattering,” he said. “But since the launch until yesterday, Rene and I hadn’t really discussed anything further regarding drivers. We’re looking at the market to see who’s available. Like with team personnel, is it the right fit or isn’t it?
“You’ve got to look at if you’re bringing in experience, and is it the right experience, because we’ve all seen it before with drivers that come in and don’t necessarily have what’s required in terms of leadership to galvanize the engineering. Every day the list gets longer and longer and longer, and Rene is dealing with that currently, because I’ve got enough on my plate, putting the nuts and bolts of the team together.”
