2026 IndyCar Team Preview: Prema

We are only ten days away from the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season opener from St. Petersburg, and we have previewed all the team, except one. It is with good reason. We don't know if Prema will compete at all in 2026. 

Prema did not compete in any preseason testing, including the official IndyCar test which just concluded from Phoenix Raceway. The Italian team has experienced some ownership changes as team founder Angelo Rosin and his son Rene were among those who left the organization. The team has said it is still working to make the grid at some point in 2026, but that is far from a guarantee.

With this uncertainty we aren't going to preview Prema, but discuss the team's situation, and what has been lost with the team shrinking from a full-time program. 

2025 Prema Review

Wins: 0

Best Finish: 6th (Laguna Seca, Portland)

Poles: 1 (Indianapolis 500)

Championship Finishes: 21st (Callum Ilott), 24th (Robert Shwartzman)

Where does Prema stand?

At this moment, it will not be full-time, and its first race of 2026, if it ever makes it to the racetrack, appears to be unknown. Funding has been the major issue for the program, and Prema has been looking for new backers since the end of the 2025 season. Team CEO Piers Phillips has reportedly been seeking support throughout the offseason.

Both drivers from the 2025 season are believed to be under contract with the team. Callum Ilott has taken on a full-time IMSA role with Wright Motorsports in the GT Daytona class. The only IMSA race that clashes with an IndyCar round is the August 23 race from Virginia International Raceway. This was originally not a clash until the Washington, D.C. round was added to the IndyCar calendar earlier this month. Robert Shwartzman has no reported deals in any series for this year.

Rumors state Prema will not be on the grid until Long Beach at the earliest though there has been no official timetable to the team's 2026 season.

What is lost?

Losing a two-car team will create space on the track and in the pit lane, which should give everyone a little more breathing room. It also clears up any issues with entering open entries. With a 27-car limit to every grid outside the Indianapolis 500 and 25 spots reserved for the chartered entries, Prema took the two available spots at every race in 2025. Without Prema, the door is open for a team to run an additional car without a risk of missing the race. 

There have been no official words about any teams adding cars for any races outside of the Indianapolis 500, but once we are through the first two or three months of the season and we know how active Prema will be, we could see a few teams roll out additional cars later in the season. 

While the loss has created opportunities, it does mean the likes of Ilott and Shwartzman will likely not be competing in 2026. Ilott has been racing in IndyCar since the end of the 2021 season. While at Juncos Hollinger Racing, Ilott had some impressive drives to top ten and even top five finishes. As a rookie, Shwartzman had two top ten finishes, but his 2025 season will be remembered for an incredible pole position at the Indianapolis 500.

We saw plenty of growing pains for Prema in its first year, but it was making strides. Ilott had four top ten finishes in the final five races, and we cannot forget the speed the team showed at Indianapolis. 

What has Prema's experience told us about IndyCar?

Prema may have been a year too late with its entry to IndyCar. Entering in 2025 with the introduction of charters saw the team miss out at least one, if not two, guaranteed spots on the grid while also competing for Leader Circle funding. Prema could not control when IndyCar would change its business model in terms of prize money for the teams, nor could it plan on being entirely left out in the cold. 

Prema did announce its IndyCar intentions for 2025 before the charter system was introduced. The team could have been given a spot considering it was committed to running full-time, but Prema was left to fend for itself. 

Being a European-based team that had predominantly competed in juniors series previously. Prema was not the first such team to enter IndyCar. Less than a decade ago, it was Carlin. Both teams experienced the same learning curve, and in Prema's case it was not going to overcome it in year one.

Both Carlin and Prema struggled with funding. Carlin's introduction to IndyCar largely came down to the team being partially owned by Grahame Chilton, father of Max Chilton, and then-CEO of Gallagher Insurance, while also having a second car backed with sponsorship from Charlie Kimball. In the junior series, there is always someone willing to fund a seat, especially one for a quality team. In contemporary IndyCar, funded drivers help, but they are not going to turn a team into a contender, let alone keep them alive for long. 

After year one, Carlin's second entry was on life-support and dependent on other funded drivers. Kimball stuck around on a part-time basis, but then Patricio O'Ward came in before briefly becoming a Red Bull junior driver. Sage Karam and RC Enerson brought some money for a few races, but after one-year of that experiment, Carlin shrunk to one-car and it was out of IndyCar after two more years. 

Prema was on the same path. It was largely self-funded, but it did not have the infrastructure to court sponsors in the United States, just like Carlin. It had to attract some kind of partner after year one and it has come up empty. 

Such a business model has its shortcomings with IndyCar. For junior series drivers, bringing money to a team has promise if it is leading to something greater. A driver can bring $2.5 million to a Formula Two team because there is something larger down the line. A driver could move into Formula One and that sponsor supporting a driver could easily gets its money back having a small decal on a Formula One car. The investment is work the risk. In IndyCar, the money required to fill a seat is nearly double that of Formula Two, and there is nothing higher. IndyCar is the limit and its popularity, or lack thereof, makes the price tag hard to justify. With no chance of moving up to another level and seeing a greater return on investment and more required to enter the series, IndyCar becomes a less attractive option.

Financing any IndyCar team is a difficult task. Not having the manpower to scout for sponsors and make connections makes survival bleak. We must acknowledge even if Prema had a charter entry and two charter entries, it was having issues greater than that base payment. It would have helped, but the team had greater financial issues and likely would have still been in an uphill battle entering the 2026 season. 

What comes next? 

There is hope Prema makes the grid, even if it is under a different name should someone purchase the assets. It feels like we could see an entry from this organization appear on the grid at some point. It could be a legitimate part-time entry and run a handful of races. It could be an Indianapolis 500-only program. It could see Ilott or Shwartzman in the car. It could see neither and be an entirely different driver. The program could never materialize. 

For Ilott, it is the second time his career has stalled out in IndyCar. First was the unceremonious dismissal from Juncos Hollinger Racing. For all the fanfare from within the paddock, he is a driver that has not received the big call when opportunities have presented themselves. Another year mostly on the sideline and running sports car race could be the final straw. If a bigger team does not call, or if at least a team is willing to give Ilott structure, his IndyCar career is likely over.

As for Shwartzman, your guess is as good as mine. He has etched a spot in folklore somewhere along Fabrizio Barbazza. That isn't a bad place to be.

This will be an ongoing story over the first few months of the season. Once we get through the Indianapolis 500, we will likely move on from it, especially if a car never makes it to the grid. 

The 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season begins on Sunday March 1 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage will begin at noon Eastern.

IndyCar Wrap-Up: Prema's 2025 Season

We have had a few weeks since the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season concluded, and that leads us to our annual team-by-team wrap-ups. The 2025 season was the first season for the Prema organization. After a long and successful spell in European junior series, Prema's IndyCar introduction started with some growing pains, however, the team had some notable high moments and, in a way, performed better than expectations. There is still room to grow though.

Callum Ilott

After a year in sports car racing and two cameo appearances for Arrow McLaren, Ilott's full-time return to IndyCar came with Prema. Having previously driven for Juncos Hollinger Racing when it made its full-time expansion into IndyCar, Ilott knew what it would be liking starting on the ground floor. Though he had that experience, Ilott still went through rough patches, but he found some strong form later in the year.

What objectively was his best race?
Ilott had two finishes in sixth-place this season, and they happened in consecutive races. The first was at Laguna Seca and the next was at Portland. They were part of a three-race top ten finish streak after he had finished eighth in Toronto, and Ilott had four top ten finishes in the final five races. 

What subjectively was his best race?

It is hard to pick between Laguna Seca and Portland because in both races he started 24th and finished sixth. Both results came from an alternate pit strategy. He had great pace at Laguna Seca, and it could have been a little better if his final pit stop wasn't a little slow. At Portland, he again had good pace and kept him at the front.

I lean toward Portland being a little better than Laguna Seca, but they were both strong performances. 

What objectively was his worst race?
Technically, it is the Indianapolis 500 because Ilott's car was disqualified for having illegal front wing end plates. Ilott was classified in 33rd despite finishing 12th on the road. He has finished 26th twice without any penalty. Those came at Thermal Club and Detroit. 

What subjectively was his worst race?

At Detroit, Ilott was looking positioned for a top fifteen finish, which would have been a good boost since, until that point and thanks to the Indianapolis penalty, was something Ilott had yet to achieve. However, one long pit stop shuffled him back, and then on the next pit stop the team did not get the wheel nut on the left front tire secured, leading Ilott to slam into the turn one barrier. 

Callum Ilott's 2025 Statistics

Championship Position: 21st (218 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 4
Laps Led: 5
Poles: 0
Fast Sixes: 0
Fast Twelves: 2
Average Start: 19.411
Average Finish: 18.4705

Robert Shwartzman

Shwartzman came to IndyCar from sports car racing, like Ilott, but it had been a few years since Shwartzman last competed in open-wheel racing. A successful driver in Formula Two and Formula Three, Shwartzman looked to reignite the success that brought him on the verge of Formula One through the Ferrari development program. IndyCar was entirely new for Shwartzman, but he had some standout days, including one no one saw coming.

What objectively was his best race?
It was ninth in the second Iowa race. This came partially because Shwartzman had not yet made his final pit stop when the caution came out for Colton Herta getting into the barrier. It aided Shwartzman in getting his best finish of the season, but he had some strong moments in that race.

What subjectively was his best race?

Gateway wasn't some staggeringly, impressive race, but with how that race was ending, Shwartzman and his team decided to make his last pit stop as late as it could, stopping with 15 laps to go. This lifted him to a tenth-place finish, his first top ten finish in IndyCar, and Prema's first top ten finish.

What objectively was his worst race?
You know, it seems weird that in Shwartzman's best we never mentioned he won pole position for the Indianapolis 500, and he did that, and it was a stunning performance after everyone had penciled in at least one if not both Prema cars for the last row shootout with one of the two cars the favorite for missing the race.

Instead, Shwartzman got quicker every day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ilott qualified without much issue and an early qualifying draw helped Shwartzman make the Fast 12. Then he made the Fast Six. In the last qualifying session of the day, Shwartzman completed the improbable and put Prema on pole position for its Indianapolis 500 debut. It will standout for years to come regardless of what he and Prema do for the remainder of their time in IndyCar. 

Let's get to the worst part of it, and that is Shwartzman's race ended after 87 laps when he had an accident entering his pit box and hit a few crew members as well. And that wasn't the team's only bad pit stop of the day.

What subjectively was his worst race?

It is close between Indianapolis and Nashville. 

Pit stops let Shwartzman down at Indianapolis, and the race ended in the most self-inflicted way possible. After qualifying, everyone questioned how Prema would do with pit stops as we had seen the team struggle through the first five races. The errors were a combination of team and driver, heavy emphasis on the driver to the second one that ultimately ended the race. 

Shwartzman never had the race pace to be competing for the victory. We didn't really get to see how he would have done down the stretch, especially as the pit strategies splintered and a few other teams were unexpectedly at the front. For all the promise of qualifying, the race was a wake up call. 

However, at Nashville, Shwartzman was running well and he was in a position to not only get a lead lap finish on an oval but finish in the top ten and overcome the eight-point deficit from Louis Foster to claim Rookie of the Year. Instead, Shwartzman took a needless blocking penalty for a move on Santino Ferrucci, served a drive-through and ended up falling two points shy of Rookie of the Year.

If Shwartzman had remained on the lead lap, he would have won Rookie of the Year, which was the only thing that really mattered to him in that race.

Robert Shwartzman's 2025 Statistics

Championship Position: 24th (211 points)
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Top Fives: 0
Top Tens: 2
Laps Led: 8
Poles: 1
Fast Sixes: 1
Fast Twelves: 1
Average Start: 20.235
Average Finish: 18.588

An Early Look Ahead

We are not confident there is a next season to look forward to for Prema. The team has had reported financial concerns after its first year in IndyCar, and there has been talks of the program merging with another team on the grid. 

Entertaining that the team will be back with two cars in 2026, it should do better than how 2025 started. For the first five races, Prema was working out the kinks. It had issues getting cars on track for practice. Once we got through the month of May, Prema had its legs underneath itself. The problem is it still struggled for speed, but the team kept making improvements, and it ended with four top ten finishes in the final five races. 

There is still a great gulf between Prema and moderate success in IndyCar. Neither driver cracked the top 20 in the championship. Both cars struggled in qualifying on a regular basis. Shwartzman never made it out of the first round of qualifying on a road or street course. Both drivers had an average starting position worse than 19th.

It should get better in year two, but so many of this team's issues surround just getting to the grid. If the money isn't there, how will it be competitive?

Prema stepped into a new beast when it came to IndyCar. This isn't a European junior series where there is always a teenager with a father willing to burn millions for his boy ready to fund the program. IndyCar requires actually finding sponsors that want to be a part of your program and that see value in a partnership. Though there are plenty of drivers out there who could bring budget to IndyCar, it is unlikely to find two drivers each bringing $6-8 million who will be competitive. Prema must put in more time behind the scenes to be successful in IndyCar. It cannot copy and paste the winning formula from the ranks for Formula Two and Formula Three and achieve the right results. 

This program has plenty to figure out away from the racetrack let alone on the track. 

It has a good lead driver in Ilott, and four top ten finishes in five races suggests something was starting to click. These were also top ten finishes on each track discipline, a street course, two road courses and an oval. Shwartzman moved to something entirely different, stunned everyone in his first oval event, and then proceeded to score his only top ten finishes at Gateway and Iowa. Despite his prowess and success in Europe, there was not a single road or street course race where we saw Shwartzman run competitively. 

But it all could be for nothing. Prema could disappear. Shwartzman could become this generation's Fabrizio Barbazza. Ilott could be off to sports cars and become a "what if." No team was going to come in and take over IndyCar in year one, but you at least wish the team could make it to year two and grow from there.

2025 IndyCar Team Preview: Prema

It might be 41 days until the first race of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season, but it has not been too early for IndyCar team drama, especially for an organization that has yet to compete in an IndyCar race. That is the case for Prema.

It has been a relatively good introductory period for Prema. From grabbing Chevrolet engines for two entries last April and hiring Piers Phillips to run the IndyCar operation, to snagging Callum Ilott and bringing Robert Shwartzman into the series with Romain Grosjean as its reserve driver and having Ryan Briscoe as its sporting advisor, Prema has gathered the right pieces. It also had a great head of engineer leading the team. 

"Had" being the key word. 

Off the track, Prema had most things situated before the end of last week. What comes next is finding out where the team is on track.

At First Glance... We have no clue

We have no clue how Prema will be. 

It is January 22nd and Prema's first test isn't until January 28 at Thermal Club. 

We have no clue where Prema stands entering its first IndyCar season. 

Up until about last Friday, we thought Prema had been doing all the right things. 

It hired two promising young drivers, staffed a competent group of engineers and support personnel, and had a rather impressive preseason presentation almost two weeks ago to show off the team. On the surface, Prema looks like a professional group that has done its best to be prepare for this new endeavor. 

Then its head of engineering Michael Cannon announced he was leaving the team less than a month after Cannon joined the organization. In a statement, Cannon said he departed after feeling his advice was being ignored. Cannon had spent the previous two seasons at A.J. Foyt Racing, was at Chip Ganassi Racing the three seasons before that and prior to that was at Dale Coyne Racing for six years.

While also working for Forsythe Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing and Andretti Global, Cannon has built a rather impressive résumé and he brings a reputation that he will make any organization better. It is not a coincidence that the fastest Foyt and Coyne have been at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the last 20 years coincide with the presence of Cannon on their respective timing stands. 

If we know anything about Prema's upcoming season is it has already experienced a loss before ever turning a wheel. 

Cannon's departure has stirred up a drumbeat that Prema has no clue what it is doing and it will suffer due to this unexpected change. Possibly, but Prema has also hired João Ginete from Haas F1 to be Shwartzman's race engineer while Steve Barker moves over from Juncos Hollinger Racing to be on Ilott's car, a combination that worked together previously. Robert Gue has joined from Arrow McLaren to lead Prema's R&D. Either way, it is far from ideal to be less than six weeks from the first race of the season and not have an head of engineering in place.

Regardless of whether Cannon is there or not, this is a new team starting from scratch. Most teams starting from scratch don't enter a series and immediately start running at the front, especially when all its competitors have been competing with this engine and chassis combination for the last few seasons. There is a bottom that Prema can be above through practical decision making. Breaking into the middle and pushing the upper tier would be unexpected in year one.

We are going to find out how everyone feels in about a week and we will get a true sense of where Prema stands at the preseason test over February 17-18.

2024 Prema Review

Wins: N/A

Best Finish: N/A

Poles: N/A

Best Start: N/A

Championship Finishes: N/A

Robert Shwartzman - #83 Prema Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

6: Free Practice 1 outings in Formula One over the last three seasons, two with Ferrari in 2022 and 2023 and two with Sauber in 2024.

14: Podium finishes in 47 Formula Two starts over 2020 and 2021. 

63: Races where Shwartzman and Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong were teammates between the Toyota Racing Series, Formula Three and the Macau Grand Prix over 2018 and 2019.

What does a championship season look like for him?

All those years competing in the junior levels of Formula One and driving in the Ferrari Driver Academy pay off and Shwartzman fits in immediately. Every decision Prema makes is golden, and the team cannot be stopped. Shwartzman is making the final round of qualifying and finishing on the podium immediately. It does not take long for victory, and his first two victories come in consecutive races at Barber Motorsports Park and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis 500 is a learning experience, but the road and street courses in the early summer swing into his favor. He wins again at Road America and Mid-Ohio, and people start believing he is a championship threat. The oval results are a weak spot, but Shwartzman's road course form is sensational, always finishing in the top five and mostly finishing on the podium. It gives him a healthy cushion going into the final two races at Milwaukee and Nashville. In those events, with greater comfort on ovals he gets a pair of top ten finishes and closes out with just enough to clinch a championship.

What does a realistic season look like for him?

Growth. Shwartzman is joining a new series where all the tracks are new and there is an entire discipline of circuit he has never run on before. Not to mention he will be learning all those while driving a new car and doing it all with a team that is entirely new to IndyCar. 

If Prema can produce good set ups, Shwartzman should be able to climb into the top ten in a few races, but seeing everything Prema does not know, this team will not be a regular front-runner. It will be starting slow and then getting better. That should be the case for this team across the board. The results at the end of the year should be better than at the start.

Where will it put Shwartzman when it is all said and done? We are expecting 27 full-time drivers. Cracking the top 20 should not feel like a reason to celebrate, but I think that is what we are looking at for a rookie who may score four or five top ten finishes at most over the entire season.

Callum Ilott - #90 Prema Racing Chevrolet

Numbers to Remember:

17.4: Average starting position in 38 IndyCar starts.

16.7: Average finishing position in 38 IndyCar starts.

5: Top ten finishes in 38 IndyCar starts.

What does a championship season look like for him?

Ilott's IndyCar experience coming in handy as Prema comes out with a bang and wins on debut in St. Petersburg. Clearly, everyone thinks that is a fluke and will not happen again, but then Ilott finishes on the podium at Thermal. Ok, third race of the season, something must give. Nope, Ilott wins again, but this one is because of a timely caution and everyone dismisses. Then he finishes eighth at Barber. Most don't think about it. But then Ilott wins the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in convincing fashion and everyone starts coming around that Prema is onto something.

Ovals will be where the team struggles, but Ilott does enough to overcome the deficit, and he gets a top ten in the Indianapolis 500. He remains consistent through June, but others start making up ground. At Mid-Ohio, Ilott wins again. He has a pair of top ten finishes in Iowa, a podium in Toronto and then he closes out his July with a victory in Laguna Seca, putting him in great control of the championship.

A conservative August leads to an Astor Cup celebration in Nashville.

What does a realistic season look like for him?

In two years with Juncos Hollinger Racing, Ilott was 20th and 16th in the championship. Prema will be new but it will not be miles off from where JHR was when Ilott was one of its drivers. Ilott and JHR produced some impressive speed at times and had some head-turning qualifying results. The race results didn't always get there, but he still had good days. 

If Prema and Ilott can find qualifying form early, race results will follow. He might not be able to recreate what he did at JHR, but if Ilott can make it out of the first round of qualifying on at least four or five occasions, it will set up the team for its best results. 

A top twenty championship finish should be the target for Ilott and company. We know Ilott can get there. There should be some hope that Shwartzman could make it two in the top twenty. If competitiveness is found early, the top fifteen could be within reach. 

This will not be a season with a flurry of top five finishes and podium appearances. A combined six to ten top ten finishes is the zone for Prema, to be in the neighborhood with the rest of IndyCar's backhalf of the grid. 

The 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season opens on Sunday March 2 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Fox's coverage of the season opener will begin at noon Eastern Time.