You might remember back on November 25 (OK, you may not, but that works as a convenient setup to link back to this post), that with a couple GP2 veterans announcing they’d be testing in December, I examined just how many free agents there were vying for the roughly seven or eight remaining Verizon IndyCar Series seats for the 2015 season.
In short, there’s an overload. And there will be way more drivers left without a seat when the music stops.
However, there has been zero official movement on new full-time seats since late October, when Jack Hawksworth was confirmed in a second car for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, and for any seat overall early November, when Jay Howard was confirmed in a second Indianapolis 500 entry for Bryan Herta Autosport.
With James Hinchcliffe confirmed at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports back in early October, we have to go back to September to find the last driver without “JH” initials confirmed in IndyCar – and that was Simon Pagenaud to Team Penske.
Technically, yes, the first three drivers at Chip Ganassi Racing (Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball) were all confirmed over a series of days in December. But those were more formalities than surprises, and none of them involved team movement.
The month of February is now setting up to cram nearly an entire offseason worth of news – or close – in the span of three-four weeks.
Here’s what still needs to come down the pipeline for IndyCar before the March 8 season opener in Brasilia, Brazil:
AERO KITS, AERO KITS, AERO KITS
You probably wouldn’t have realized this otherwise because it was NFL Championship Sunday, but Sunday marked the homologation date deadline for Chevrolet and Honda. INDYCAR is yet to confirm an official launch date for the kits, but figure news on when that launch date is could be imminent within the next week or two.
INDYCAR’s Will Phillips posted about aero kits on Twitter on Sunday.
INDYCAR DRIVERS/TEAM OWNERS IN OTHER DISCIPLINES
Sarah Fisher made her competitive racing return this past week at the Chili Bowl. And now, a boatload of drivers from the 2014 IndyCar season will be in action at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
More than a third of the starters from the 2014 Indianapolis 500 are on the grid, and a handful more were pounding the pavement during the week seeing if they could get anything done. It didn’t seem to happen.
THE REST OF THE GRID
Back in November, the available seats still outstanding were: Chip Ganassi Racing #4, Andretti Autosport #4, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports #2, CFH Racing’s road/street course #2, Dale Coyne Racing’s #1 and 2, and Bryan Herta Autosport’s #1.
Two months later, exactly all of those seats are still yet to be filled. There is literally no point to writing another silly season update beyond the one I penned in November because almost nothing has changed.
With IndyCar’s media day set for Feb. 17 in Indianapolis, the next month figures to be prime signing time to ensure each driver/team gets at least one or two days of testing in before the season opener.
So, basically, if you cover IndyCar, get a template ready that reads “Driver signs with team for the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season,” and go from there depending on each driver’s respective resumes over the years.
TRACK, AND CAR, PREP
As noted in the last week, Brazil’s track construction in Brasilia is finally underway. Between finishing that up, then bolting on the aero kits, testing them at Barber and heading to St. Petersburg, IndyCar will have its own version of “March Madness” awaiting it.
The long and short of the above: after an offseason with little to no news, really, over the extended gap since last August’s season finale, IndyCar is finally set for a flurry of it that should occur – that really has to occur – between now and the March 8 season opener.
