Written by Dan Jones, Edited by Morgan Holiday
With just days until the green flag is flown on the Streets of St. Petersburg to kick off the 2025 IndyCar season, DIVEBOMB covers all the stories on what to expect from a new season of IndyCar. Dan takes you through the crop of drivers who will battle for IndyCar's 'Rookie of the Year' award.
Louis Foster
2024 was a now-or-never year for Louis Foster. With sponsorship budget only enough for another season of Indy NXT, Foster's last chance at making the step up to IndyCar was to claim the Indy NXT title and the scholarship money that goes with that in a bid for a full-time drive.
From there, Foster never looked back. He would win eight of 14 races, and stand on the podium in all bar two on his way to a dominant championship. His performance was enough to impress Rahal Letterman Lanigan team owner, Bobby Rahal, to the extent where the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner offered Foster a full-time paid drive for 2025.
Foster, of Odiham in the United Kingdom, started his motorsport career in native Britain, claiming third in the British F4 Championship and the British F3 Championship in consecutive seasons. Foster would then finish second to Cameron Das in the Euroformula Open championship in 2021, before making the switch over to the United States.
The decision was simple for Foster, as he noted exclusively to DIVEBOMB: "I wanted to stay in single-seaters, but there was no progression that I could have done in Europe. Paying the hefty bill to do FIA F3 was not viable for me so the only other option was America.
“I had my eye on IndyCar for a while so we moved over in 2022 to come and race in Indy Pro. The support of young drivers they have, especially financially, also the racing here, is amazing.”
The Briton would impress off the bat, dominating on his way to the Indy Pro 2000 title in his maiden season. An inconsistent first year of Indy NXT yielded two wins on his way to fourth in the standings, behind Christian Rasmussen, Hunter McElrea and Nolan Siegel, all of whom have since made the step to IndyCar in some capacity.
All of the IndyCar paddock would take an eye at Foster's maturity in his title-winning season though, particularly Rahal: "I was just very impressed about his racing this year. Really doesn't seem to make mistakes. Can run quick pace lap after lap after lap without making those mistakes and seems to be smart behind the wheel. Particularly being smart behind the wheel I think is so critical.
"It wasn't premature for us to sign Louis, and frankly I wanted to get him before somebody else might."
The most recent Indy NXT Champions, Christian Rasmussen, Linus Lundqvist, Kyle Kirkwood, Rinus VeeKay and Pato O'Ward have all impressed since making the switch to IndyCar, and Foster will hope to add to that success.
He joins a RLL team who have been in turmoil in recent years, and will have big shoes to fill as Christian Lundgaard makes the move to Arrow McLaren. RLL have trusted Foster to the extent that the rookie is on a multi-year contract, something not too common in the IndyCar world, and that's a testament to Foster's ability.
It remains to be seen whether Foster can be the bright spark that Christian Lundgaard was at times to RLL, but what is for sure is that he is a very promising talent on the IndyCar scene, and the dominance that he displayed in Indy NXT really gives hope that he can be a star of the future.
MORE: Louis Foster joins the DIVEBOMB IndyCar Podcast to speak about his move to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Robert Shwartzman
The modern IndyCar trend of ex-F2 drivers making the switch to IndyCar will continue in 2025, as Robert Shwartzman will join a hefty list of strong F2 drivers who didn't quite make the F1 cut, including: Marcus Armstrong, Callum Ilott, Christian Lundgaard, Luca Ghiotto, Théo Pourchaire and Jüri Vips.
Shwartzman has quite the resume for a driver just 25 years of age. He won the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand in 2018 before claiming the highly prestigious FIA Formula 3 title the following year with PREMA, the team he will make his IndyCar debut with.
That would then be followed by six wins in F2 over two seasons, on the Israeli-Russian's way to fourth and second in the standings in consecutive years. A full-time F1 seat would unfortunately not land for 2022, with Shwartzman fulfilling a reserve role at Ferrari and Alfa Romeo/Sauber in following years, as well as for DS Penske in Formula E.
Shwartzman returned to top level racing in 2024 with AF Corse in the World Endurance Championship alongside Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye where the trio claimed victory in the Six Hours of Austin.
However, Shwartzman was desperate for a return to single-seaters, and when the team he had the most success with in his junior career, PREMA, announced that they would be making the switch over to IndyCar, it felt like an excellent opportunity for Shwartzman.
"The timing happened that PREMA announced they were joining IndyCar. Again, it's a team that I know really well, and my contract was expiring at the end of last year, so I was like, okay, this is probably a right moment to push for IndyCar.
"So it happened, everything in that sense. I think it's like meant to be. And there we are. For me, I'm very happy where I am. I'm happy with the team I'm driving with. As I said, it's just happened so that I've already been looking for the series for quite a few years."
One of the biggest unknowns heading into the season is where PREMA will stack up against a highly competitive field. It's clear by PREMA's success in Europe that they truly are a well-oiled operation, but IndyCar is a different kettle of fish in comparison to the European feeder series ladder.
Shwartzman has a lot of learning to do from a personal level too. Unlike his two fellow rookies, Shwartzman has no experience racing on ovals and no experience on any of the 16 circuits that make up the 2025 calendar. But on the flip side, Shwartzman is the one with the highest pedigree, and by some distance, and has been renowned for his adaptability in getting up to speed in unfamiliar machinery.
His commitment to IndyCar is clearly a long-term project, and Shwartzman and PREMA are certainly not going to be getting results straight off the bat. It's hard to really know where Shwartzman will stack up in this battle, despite his resume, just on the basis that both him and the team have an incredible amount of learning to do. But a driver with his reputation being added to the IndyCar field is only a positive for all.
Jacob Abel
After a turbulent 2024 season for Dale Coyne Racing, where they fielded five rookies alone (in addition to four 'veterans'), 2025 is a season all about stability, and stopping the merry-go-round of drivers that plagued their 2024 season, and this is how an opportunity was provided for Jacob Abel.
The 23-year-old is the reigning Indy NXT vice-champion, only behind the dominant Foster, and also saw his podium count in the double figures which included victories at Barber and Portland. It was a breakout third year of Indy NXT for Abel, who has raced for his father's team his entire career to date, but knew that 2025 was the time to make the step up to IndyCar, if anything became available.
Abel will have a difficult task ahead though. Similarly to Foster, he joins a team which had an underwhelming 2024, and will be tasked with helping to steady the ship, in addition to his own personal growth and development in his maiden IndyCar season.
However, it's also a team that has been known in recent years to put real trust into rookie talent, which has helped set the course of Álex Palou, Romain Grosjean and David Malukas' IndyCar careers, and Abel will hope to follow suit.
He will be joined by Rinus VeeKay at the team, after his departure from Ed Carpenter Racing. With five years of IndyCar experience, VeeKay is exactly the sort of driver that Abel needs in a teammate role, as he noted exclusively to DIVEBOMB: “Very helpful. He’s someone with a lot of experience. He’s a race-winning driver and he’s a super helpful resource to have.”
Abel's ascent up the Road to Indy ladder has not been as instant as the likes of Foster or of 2023 Indy NXT Champion, Christian Rasmussen. After two part-time seasons in U.S. F2000, three near-full seasons in Indy Pro 2000 yielded just three podiums, and it was only in Abel's third season of Indy NXT when the Louisville, Kentucky native started to find his flow.
But that's not to say it isn't still impressive. Racing exclusively with his father's team, Abel has had to effectively build a team around him on every step of the Road to Indy ladder, and the fruit of that is the team now fielding four entries in Indy NXT. On paper, results aren't flashy, but it's much more impressive than what meets the eye.
Abel certainly is the underdog in the Rookie of the Year battle, and he is the one with the least strong reputation of the three. He also has the least experience in motorsport (but the most on the American scene). But Coyne are known to put faith in their rookie drivers, and Abel does have the chance to quietly impress.
Also to note:
Due to the slightly confusing technicalities of the IndyCar rookie guidelines, Kyle Larson is still classed as a series rookie.
However, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion's only race will be that of the Indianapolis 500, where Larson will not be competing for the Rookie of the Year title, as he won the award in his maiden Indianapolis 500 attempt last year. Foster, Abel and Shwartzman will all compete for the Rookie of the Year award at the Indianapolis 500.
These three drivers will make up IndyCar's 2025 rookie class, with the Streets of St. Petersburg season opener on March 2nd signifying a first IndyCar appearance for all three. DIVEBOMB will continue to bring all the build-up to the 2025 season, as well as coverage throughout the course of the year.
Bình luận