Tag: IndyCar

A special St. Petersburg Grand Prix practice day report by Mark Robertson, with image contributions from MRA Racing Images.

 For the St. Pete Grand Prix, we decided to attend only on the Friday practice day.  There were two practice sessions, and of course, the cars in the paddock, lining up as they prepared to hit the track, and many opportunities to be close to the drivers as they took the walk (or scooter) from paddock to pit. 

 There were a few changes to the lineups for the St Pete, many of the liveries have changed, and the cars were looking very good on the track.  2025 is the first full season for the hybrid system, which adds another 120 horsepower when accompanied by the push-to-pass boost, giving the cars around 800hp on road and street circuits.

 Some St. Petersburg Grand Prix driver changes include:

• David Malukas is moving to A.J. Foyt racing, coming from the Dale Coyne team.
• Christian Lundgaard is going to Arrow McLaren after running with Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
• Alexander Rossi will join Ed Carpenter Racing, coming from Arrow McLaren.
• Marcus Armstrong will head to Meyer Shank Racing after running with Chip Ganassi Racing last year.
• Conor Daly will become a full-time driver for Juncos Hollinger Racing, replacing outgoing Roman Grosjean.
• Rinus Veekay and Jacob Abel will drive for Dale Coyne Racing.  Abel, whose father sponsored an Indycar team last year, has decided to concentrate his efforts into making Jacob’s run a success and will not be fielding a team at this year’s Indianapolis 500, nor the season.
• Louis Foster and Devlin DeFrancesco will go to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for the 2025 season.
• There is a new Indycar team called PREMA Racing, which will debut with Callum Illot and Robert Shwartzman.
• The Penske and Andretti teams will remain unchanged.

Louis Foster.

 Louis Foster is the son of British Touring Car Champion Nick Foster.  He competed in the Indy NXT series in the 2023/2024 seasons, coming in 4^th overall in 2023 and was the Indy NXT champion running under the Andretti Global banner in 2024.  He was also the Indy Pro 2000 champion in 2022.  His racing history goes back to 2017 and the Ginetta Junior Championship, moving to the F4 British Championship in 2019 where he finished the season in 3^rd overall.  He participated in Indy Pro 2000 in 2022.

Jacob Abel.

 Jacob Abel started out in 2017 in the Formula 4 US Championship series, then the US F2000 series.  Since then he has competed in the F3 Americas, USF 2000, Indy Pro 2000 and the Formula Regional Americas championships.  He has also driven Stadium Supertrucks and in the IMSA Sportscar Championship running an Acura NSX GT3 EVO for Compass Racing in the GTD group.  In 2023 he transitioned into Indy NXT with a 5^th place finish in the series, and in 2024 he was second behind Louis Foster. 

Robert Shwartzman.

 Robert Shwartzman has driven in mostly European series, such as the Italian F4, ADAC F4, Eurocup Formula Renault, FIA Formula 3 (1^st in championship in 2019), FIA Formula 2 championships and the Toyota Racing series, which he won in 2018.  He is no stranger to the podium, winning numerous races in several of the series in which he competed.  In addition, he has been a test driver for Penske in the Formula E series, a test driver for Ferrari, and has participated in WEC and GT World Challenge Europe.  In 2024 he was a reserve driver for Ferrari in F1, and this year he will make his debut in a single-seater Indycar.

PREMA Racing Team.

 PREMA Racing Team began as an Italian Formula 3 team in 1983. The team developed young talent such as Jacques Villeneuve, Ryan Briscoe, Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong.  The team has won championships in FIA Formula 2 (3 times), FIA Formula 3 (5 times), the Italian F4 Championship (8 times), Formula Renault and several others, and now has their sights set on IndyCar, having built strong relationships with several manufacturers including Honda and brands like Red Bull.  Among their former drivers list are Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Mick Schumacher, Pierre Gasly, Charles LeClerc, Oscar Piastri, Enzo Fittipaldi, Marcus Armstrong, Antonio Fuoco, and Kamui Kobayashi, who in 2019 set the fastest lap time at Sebring International Speedway, so they are no stranger to mentoring and developing high quality drivers in the world of racing. 

St. Petersburg Grand Prix Practice day.

 Practice day was sunny, a bit warm, as can be expected from this event.  When it is time to hit the track, the cars come out of the paddock and parade through a roped off crowd onto pit lane. 

In recent years this has been the first event of the season, so there is always a certain amount of showmanship involved; the new liveries, new drivers meeting for the first time, and old friends catching up before pounding out the laps on track.  Teams are anxious to get going and find out where they (and everyone else) stand with respect to performance.

As the session unfolded, we took a few photos along the front straight, took in the sights and walked around the circuit, finally landing in the grandstands a little up-track from the first turn.  Here is a collection of images from the practice day, with some additional photos by MRA Racing Images, as noted:

The following images were contributed by MRA Racing Images (Mark Roden):

My next report will be from Indianapolis Motor Speedway…Is It May Yet?

Some other reports you may be interested in which contain my work:

To see more work from Mark Roden (MRA Racing Images):