A 27-car field will start as the 2023 IndyCar Series hits the streets of St. Petersburg.
Although the 2.2-litre engines remain unchanged ahead of hybrid power for 2024, several notable technical changes have been made, including the adoption of Shell’s 100% renewable fuel praised in tests by Josef Newgarden and a number of changes that are intended to improve matches. oval, including aero tweaks and the requirement to use two different tire compounds for the first time.
But how will all this affect this year’s battle for the title? And can anyone break the private duel between Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing that played out last season?
Here are five of the biggest talking points heading into 2023.
1. Who will come out on top in the battle with his Penske teammates?
Newgarden (left) seeks to end a run of three straight seasons by finishing second, but must overcome team-mates McLaughlin and champion Power (right)
Photo: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden finished three years in a row as runner-up in the title race and, in this writer’s opinion, in two of those years he was marginally the best. How does a driver as ruthlessly determined as the 32-year-old Tennessean handle this? Well, it’s coming back stronger. And, according to the man himself, he has no intention of compromising on the way he approaches a race weekend.
“I don’t know that we need to change anything in terms of our approach or our process,” says Newgarden, who is entering his seventh year with Team Penske. “I think everything we do is what we should do.
“IndyCar has this intangible side where you can’t predict everything. It’s preparation, hard work, maximizing every day, then… the tides have to roll for you.”
Power still has devastating qualifying pace, even though there were one or two blips last year, and his ability to judge the chances he’s passing is as impeccable as ever
But his teammate Will Power is the defending champion for a reason. He showed better than anyone last year how to win a title. no matter where he was in the early rounds of a race, his eyes were on the final prize.
Insight: The new skills Power acquired to end his long wait for an IndyCar title
Power still has devastating qualifying pace, even though there were a blip or two last year, and his ability to judge opportunities is more impeccable than ever. He has also learned how to let the frustration evaporate instead of seeping into his preparations for the next session, the next race, the next round.
While both Power and Newgarden are formidable, they now know that their colleague Scott McLaughlin is the real deal on the open wheel. The three-time Supercars champion scored three wins last year and was just an Indy 500 shunt and a Detroit error away from a real tilt at the title in the finale. In his third season at this level, he should be even stronger.
2. Can the enlarged Arrow McLaren take the title?
Rossi will race for an IndyCar team other than Andretti Autosport for the first time this year as he moves to Arrow McLaren – but can he help the team become title contenders?
Photo by: IndyCar Series
It seems like every year we ask a question along the lines of whether Arrow McLaren will join Penske and Ganassi to form IndyCar’s ‘Big Three’. It is debatable whether the team has now supplanted Andretti Autosport as the third best team in the series, but it is safe to say that it has yet to prove itself in first place in terms of home/race consistency.
But one gets the sense that the potential is there and that nothing will derail the Zak Brown-led team from their path to the top. Will the arrival of Alexander Rossi with a third full-time car accelerate this progress? Not by itself, no: few, if any, drivers have the power to do this.
However, McLaren has managed to retain its best staff and attract equally strong individuals from rival teams – at a time when recruiting top team members is difficult due to the boom in grid numbers in IndyCar and IMSA – thus proving the investment it is ready this team to do.
Insight: Will changing teams make Alexander Rossi an IndyCar title threat again?
So we can be sure that the three cars of Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist and Rossi will be crewed and engineered by some of the biggest talent in the pitlane. In 2023, Arrow McLaren has no excuse not to reach the Laguna Seca finale with at least one driver in contention for the championship.
3. Will Armstrong and Sato seize their opportunities?
F2 conversion Armstrong has the right environment to thrive as he switches codes to IndyCar
Photo by: IndyCar Series
A two-day tryout at the Thermal Club in early February can’t tell a team everything it needs to know about a rookie’s supreme potential. But 22-year-old Formula 2 race-winning New Zealander Marcus Armstrong looks set to hold off his star team-mates – at least.
In his first year, no one expects Armstrong to destroy the opposition like Alex Palou at Laguna Seca or turn mud into chocolate like Scott Dixon at Nashville. But focusing only on road and road courses will allow him to learn the car, find his limit on hot and worn or fresh but cold tires and reach the nth degree on alternative compounds in qualifying. Since Armstrong has quickly taken advantage of the vast human and technical resources at Chip Ganassi Racing, his talent will soon become clear.
Will Sato make the team stronger? Will the team make Sato stronger? It could be a great combination
So does veteran Takuma Sato, who will drive Armstrong’s #11 in the five oval races on this year’s schedule. Last year, Sato impressed Dale Coyne Racing with his ability to adapt to the team’s oval set-ups, which differed from what the two-time Indy 500 winner had found in Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Now Sato brings his oval expertise to a team that has kicked ass at Indy, pace-wise, for the past three years.
Insight: Why Sato at Ganassi is a dream scenario for both parties
Will it make the team stronger? Will the team make Sato stronger? It could be a great combination as Sato enjoys a team that knows exactly how to find that last spark of speed in evolving track conditions.
4. Can Andretti Autosport put Hertha into championship contention?
Herta’s lack of Superlicence points meant he was snubbed for a possible move to F1 with AlphaTauri – can he show the world championship what it’s missing?
Photo by: IndyCar Series
For the umpteenth time we point out that Andretti Autosport was the last team to break the Penske/Ganassi stranglehold on the IndyCar championship. And for the umpteenth time we look to the season ahead and wonder if Michael Andretti’s team has what it takes to reach this level again.
Colton Herta has the speed, intelligence and work ethic to be a champion and Nathan O’Rourke is one of the best race mechanics in the pitlane. Together they can make a driver-car combination that suits everyone. But their worst days must get much better.
There have been some worrying slip-ups from Hertha in 2022, some of them inexcusable mistakes, which must be ironed out if they are to win the title their talent deserves. And as a whole, Andretti Autosport needs to make more progress in a race weekend.
Over the past three seasons, there have been too many times when the quartet of AA cars have come out of the trailers on Friday as eighth-place cars and never developed into podium contenders by Sunday in the way you’d expect from, say, Ganassi .
5. Can Malukas and Ilott make spring underdogs?
After his storming Gateway run to the podium, Malukas is a good bet for more underdog results with Coyne in 2023
Photo: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
In the case of David Malukas, without a doubt. At Gateway last year, the 2021 Indy Lights runner-up was possibly only two laps away from scoring Dale Coyne Racing’s seventh win, and his booming confidence on roads and streets has put him in regular contention for the Fast Six in qualifying.
To see Maloukas score two more podiums this year will require a fit and well-drilled pit crew and for him to develop the same relationship with Alex Athanasiadis – the team’s former performance engineer – that he enjoyed with Ross Bunnell, who has joined Chip Ganassi. Racing as Dixon’s race engineer.
Despite JHR being the only team with a car on the grid last year, Ilott started six races in the top half of the field, culminating in a front row finish in the finale at Laguna Seca.
Juncos Hollinger Racing, recently expanded to field a second full-time entry for touring car ace but IndyCar rookie Agustin Canapino, is the smallest team in the paddock, but in Callum Ilott they appear to have a gem in the rough. Despite JHR being the only team with a car on the grid last year, the Briton started six races in the top half of the field, culminating in a front row finish in the finale at Laguna Seca.
Ilott’s speed in testing suggests the momentum has been maintained for 2023. Does the team have the strength in depth to help Ilott trouble some of his more established peers? One can only hope.
Ilott impressed in testing with the expanded Juncos Hollinger team as he prepares to enter his second full season
Photo by: IndyCar Series