Alex Zanardi left us, and Italians honored him with victories. Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the Miami Grand Prix, his third consecutive victory, all from pole position. Gabriele Mini won the Formula Two feature race. Nikola Tsolov won the sprint race and leads Formula Two championship by a point over Mini. Formula One avoided the rain moving the start time up three hours. One point separates the top two in Supercross with one race remaining. A winning streak continues in IMSA with another stellar race. There was a historic drive in Berlin. This May has begun with rancor around IndyCar and its future.
The Future with Charters
During this extended break for IndyCar, news trickled out when few were paying attention that starting in 2027 IndyCar would bar non-charter teams from competing in races outside the Indianapolis 500. This rule change has not been confirmed, but it is in the works and it has been accepted that it will be codified before next season.
It is a big change considering IndyCar has been an open shop, like many motorsports series, for its entire existence. Purchase a car that complies with the rulebook and you are eligible to race, but as IndyCar and its teams work to make participation in the series valuable and net a greater return on the investment, the charter system has closed the door.
This news has not been met with any enthusiasm. It has been seen as an abandonment of an essential aspect of motorsports, an accessibility unlike most other sports. It is seen as closing off competition and shutting out prospective teams from entering IndyCar.
Any participation in IndyCar will now require essentially a full-time commitment. It will not be as easy to compete in IndyCar, but there should also be a recognition that it is not the early days of the 20th century. IndyCar is not what it is was in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s. It isn't what it was in the 1990s and maybe even the dawn of the 21st century. There is an urge to change, and that urge is for the series to provide some value competing. Teams have come and gone and owners have left with nothing to show for it. Equipment and assets have been sold off for pennies on the dollar because the demand was not there and the market dictated it.
This new rule creates scarcity. Starting next year, only 25 cars will compete in every race besides the Indianapolis 500. That number will increase to 27 when Chevrolet and Honda each receive a charter entry.
It is tough to see, but if we are honest with ourselves, IndyCar is not losing much with this limitation of entries. At worst, it is losing a hypothetical, something that doesn't exist.
For all those upset that a team can no longer "dip their toe" into IndyCar, not many have been testing the waters lately. The last non-full-time team to run an IndyCar race outside of the Indianapolis 500 was Paretta Autosport in the 2022 Laguna Seca season finale. That is pushing four years ago!
IndyCar has been in a place where it has been drawing at least two-dozen entries for over five seasons. The last race to feature fewer than 24 cars was the second race of the Mid-Ohio doubleheader in September 2020. Last season had at least 27 cars start every race. Full-time participation has never been better in IndyCar, and it changes how you look at participation. There is not a need for occasional one-off entries to add to the grid.
For starters, the series has reached a natural limit. There is a reason why 33 cars don't try and attempt every race. The resources are at their limits. First, there is space. Pit space and paddock space is at its limit currently for a number of venues. There isn't room for another two or four or eight entires. Second, the natural flow of sponsors limits the grid. For IndyCar's size, the number of companies that see it as a worthy sponsorship avenue does not permit another five full-time entries. Companies are not dying to throw their money in IndyCar and make it easier for an organization on the outside to form a team and enter out of thin air.
If there is concern this restriction will hurt IndyCar in terms of team interest, the opposite could actually be true. As much as we think dipping the toe is the best introduction, this restriction basically forces anyone who wants to enter IndyCar to have all their ducks in a row. If you want to be in IndyCar, you must be ready for it. This isn't something you can half-heartedly jump into and bail out of after a few race weekends.
That is actually better for the series.
If a team wants to be in IndyCar, it will need to buy a charter and make a full-time commitment. That is a change, but it is a change that is better for the series. The proper financial arrangement must be set before getting started. People hate that there is a business side to motorsports, but that is what it takes to compete. It cost something to race. The charter is additional, but it is an investment that makes it more than a hobby. It makes it less likely to be a loss a wealthy individual can take on the chin and become a fun story ten years down the line at a party about how he lost $5 million trying to operate a race team. If you are involved, you are going to be looking for more out of it.
Slowing acclimating to IndyCar has been how a few teams have entered the series. It is how Meyer Shank Racing got into the series, though that was an established race team, which had a strong relationship with Honda prior to joining. It dipped its toe, but it had a massive guiding force holding its hand and keeping it from drowning.
For every Meyer Shank Racing, there is Harding Racing that bit off more than it could chew and thought it was easy because it finished in the top ten on debut in the Indianapolis 500. A few good races led to a dive into full-time competition, and within a year, Mike Harding was looking for someone to bail him out. Enter George Steinbrenner IV, but even then the team was absorbed into the existing Andretti Autosport program.
Was Harding Racing ready for full-time competition? No. The team entered with a hope that results would lead to more funding. It was already a team that finished in the top ten of the Indianapolis 500, how hard could it be to attract a multi-mullion dollar sponsor? Obviously harder than Harding believed, and it required the established organizations to keep that entry on the grid.
Even experienced organizations learned the hard way.
DragonSpeed was intrigued with IndyCar and planned on running a few races in 2019. The successful sports car operation made the second round of qualifying on debut at St. Petersburg, but it was tougher to expand into the series, especially as the team tried to use a number of crew members based outside the United States and struggled with visa to enter the country. Other than the 2020 Indianapolis 500 and the 2022 Indianapolis 500 when a 33rd entry had to materialize, DragonSpeed never competed more in IndyCar than it did that first year when it ran three races.
There are more examples that slowly wading into the water does not produce more full-time and dedicated participants than diving in with a cannonball off the top platform.
Don't get me wrong, it is odd to consider we will not see any one-offs anymore outside of the Indianapolis 500, but they have not been that frequent to begin with. Do you remember the last non-Indianapolis 500 one-off entry from a full-time team? It was Jüri Vips running a fourth Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry at Portland in 2024. Prior to that it was Paretta Autosport entering Simona de Silvestro at Laguna Seca in 2022.
It doesn't happen with any regularity to think IndyCar is losing something fundamental to its current identity. The fear is losing a hypothetical. It is losing the idea that a Jonny-Come-Lately could form a team off lottery winnings and turn into a contender. That never happens.
There is room for melancholia with this decision. While we should not exaggerate the number of teams that slowly expanded their IndyCar participation, Christian Lundgaard did make his IndyCar debut as a one-off entry. There is some value in a younger driver getting to run a few races without having to take over a full-time entry.
The current set up allowed Ed Carpenter to enter an extra car in every oval race for himself. It was cool that you could see Simona de Silvestro come back and run some races. It was cool when a team would enter the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500, and we got to see Juan Pablo Montoya for an additional race. The thought of Felipe Nasr or Ricky Taylor getting to run an IndyCar race as a one-off just because they can and a team could put together a seat is exciting, and now it will not be possible, and it does take away a fun element to motorsports.
Some of the consternation is this will shrink IndyCar and it will keep teams from entering the Indianapolis 500 as one-offs. Maybe. The only Indianapolis 500 one-off team we have had for the last decade has been Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, and until last year, IndyCar didn't have a charter system. What was keeping all of those teams away from 2013 through 2024?
The cost issues are already there for the Indianapolis 500. Teams aren't interested in the Indianapolis 500 because it costs about $1 million to form a program where the lowest payout is around $200,000. Unless you win the race, a team is looking at losing over three quarters of a million for one race. What is the point of that?
That is a different problem to solve and is independent of charters existing for full-time competition.
We don't know what this rule will lead to, but for the first time in a long-time IndyCar has done something as an attempt to increase the value in running full-time in the series. The Indianapolis 500 has been fine. It is every other race and the series as a whole that needs help. If you want to be in IndyCar, it forces a team to be in IndyCar. This decision will turn off those who aren't sure if they can do it, but for those who want to be in IndyCar, it becomes clear what must be done. It will require gathering the funds for the charter and that is a greater investment. That isn't running at Long Beach and seeing how it goes before doing more.
This is year two of IndyCar's charter system, and we don't know how much these are really worth. The market will decide that. If there is a buyer willing to spend $10 million per charter, well then congratulations to the existing car owners. If no one is buying for more than $1.5 million, it is more than they would have gotten before, but it shows how much demand there is in IndyCar.
The real barometer for series health is not whether new teams want to slowly enter in IndyCar running three races but how easy charters are sold. The value is in the eye of the beholder. If the teams think they have a golden goose but every prospective buyer thinks it is more like a used 2005 Honda Civic, then the series will have a problem. There is no need to worry about car count and the series size until teams are trying to sell charters and no one is buying. That could have happened regardless if the series decided to bar non-charter one-off or not.
Let's be patience with this decision because we don't know what it will lead to in five years or ten years. Let's also remember that while the rule is changing ahead of 2027, it can always change again. This isn't a decree from God about how things will always be moving forward. Worst case, this becomes another footnote in the history book like the 25/8-rule or double-file restarts. It happened, but it did not last.
For all the negativity around this decision, consider that this could actually work and increase the value for the teams and the value of the IndyCar Series. Something must be done to increase the value. Changing nothing wasn't going to be the answer. Stop for one moment and think this just might work.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about what happened in Miami, but did you know...
Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Texas, his second victory of the season. Kyle Larson won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season. Carson Hocevar won the Truck race.
Nico Müller and Mitch Evans split the Berlin ePrix, and Evans won from 17th.
The #5 JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche of Laurin Heinrich and Tijmen van der Helm won the IMSA race from Laguna Seca. The #65 Ford Racing Ford of Christopher Mies and Frédéric Vervisch won in GTD Pro. The #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini of Trent Hindman and Danny Formal won in GTD.
The #50 AF Corse Ferrari of Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer and the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche of Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller split the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup races from Brands Hatch.
The #22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson of Ben Hanley, Griffin Peebles and Grégoire Saucy won the 4 Hours of Le Castellet. The #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier-Toyota of Alexander Bukhantsov, Chun-Ting Chou and Henry Cubides Olarte won in LMP3. The #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Mathys Jaubert, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra won in the LMGT3.
Nicolò Bulega swept the World Superbike races from Balaton Park, and Bulega has now won all 12 races this season. Valentin Debise and Albert Arenas split the World Supersport races.
Hunter Lawrence won the Supercross race from Denver with Ken Roczen finishing second, meaning Roczen will have a one-point championship lead over Lawrence entering the Salt Lake City finale. Haiden Deegan won the 250cc race.
The #36 TGR Team au TOM's Toyota of Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita won the Super GT race from Fuji, its second consecutive victory. The #56 Kondo Racing Nissan of João Paulo de Oliveira and Iori Kimura won in GT300.
Coming Up This Weekend
The 13th Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Supercross concludes the season in Salt Lake City.
The FIA World Endurance Championship has its annual Saturday race at Spa-Francorchamps.
MotoGP ventures up to Le Mans.
NASCAR makes its earliest trip to Watkins Glen.
GT World Challenge America will be at Sebring.
The World Rally Championship is up to its sixth round of the season in Portugal.
