Written by Archie O’Reilly
Louis Foster underwent a productive first test day as a full-time IndyCar driver at the Thermal Club last week as he gears up for his rookie season with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) in 2025.
The reigning Indy NXT champion was one of six drivers on track at the idyllic Californian circuit as teams utilised one of their off-season rookie and driver evaluation test days.
“It was a good day,” Foster said after his first outing with his new team. “We had a very different run plan to a lot of the other drivers there. We did a lot of running in the sense that we were practicing for me to race.
“So we did a lot of fuel saving, we did a lot of tyre saving - just those kinds of things. But it was a good day - we learned a lot as a team.
“We definitely faced some issues with the balance; I think the team would be the first to admit that we weren’t quite in the window where we wanted to be. But we did a lot of laps. I was quite tired by the end of it but I enjoyed it.”
Foster’s one previous IndyCar test came with Andretti Global, with whom he won the Indy NXT title, at Road America in September 2023. Having graduated to IndyCar with RLL, the Thermal test was a first chance for him to work with a team that he has a multi-year IndyCar
agreement with.
“It was my first time out properly in an Indy car with a team, with an end goal,” he said. “And that’s what I really enjoy is the ability to go out there and have a target and know what we want to do and where we want to be. So that was fun.
“The car’s not too dissimilar from the Indy Lights car so you get in and it’s like: ‘Take a few laps to get a feel for where you are and then you can go.’ Once you’ve driven Lights, I think it’s quite an easy car to step into and get used to quickly.”
There were a lot of lessons for Foster to take away but there were no major challenges. The main objective was familiarising himself with some of the skills required in a race situation, including fuel saving and hybrid power usage.
“Nothing really surprised me,” he said. “There are definitely new things and I still need to get my head around it a bit more and learn it more. But I think the base that we hit, the place we ended up as a team, we were quite happy with.
“We can see a great stepping stone forward from there - both for myself and as a team. Obviously there’s little bits here and there and the data; I can brake a bit harder, brake a bit later, get on power - those small things, which will just come with a bit more time in the car. But I think nothing monumental.”
The hybrid system, which was not in place for Foster’s previous test, was not too big an obstacle and he has quickly gained a good understanding.
“It’s not too weird,” he said. “You don’t need to worry about the regen, at least from what I understand. It regens off-throttle and on-braking automatically… you never really have to drive differently to regen more or less.
“The only difficult thing is making sure you get the right percentage of deployment at each corner that the team wants. Usually you’ve got about two to four deployment zones on a lap. It’s not too dissimilar from the push-to-pass system in the sense that when you’re going for a hot lap in the race, you’ll have deployment zones of push-to-pass that’s most optimal.
“On critical laps in the race, you’ll be going out of corners sometimes with both buttons on trying to get the maximum amount of speed up as possible and the biggest delta with the shortest amount of push-to-pass and hybrid usage.
“It definitely adds something to the straight. Because you’re going through so many gears and you’re pulling hybrid and other stuff going on, the straights are now actually kind of busy. But honestly not a huge difficult thing to get your head around.”
Also on track were Hunter McElrea (testing for Ed Carpenter Racing) and Toby Sowery (testing for Dale Coyne Racing), who both made their race debuts in 2024.
Recent Williams Formula One driver Logan Sargeant tested for Meyer Shank Racing, while newly-crowned IMSA champion and former F1 driver Felipe Nasr was with Team Penske and Formula 2 race-winner Enzo Fittipaldi with Arrow McLaren.
Foster was the only driver at the test confirmed to be on the IndyCar grid next season as the Thermal Club hosts its first points-paying IndyCar race in March. The facility first hosted a test ahead of the 2023 season and then the $1 Million Challenge exhibition event in 2024.
“There’s so little runoff, you’re driving by houses, so it’s very different,” Foster said of the circuit after his first time driving at Thermal. “But it’s a cool track. It’s got two very distinct sections to it - a fast section and a slow section. I enjoyed it.”
The nature of the track - in some ways combining characteristics of other road courses on the IndyCar calendar - does pose a challenge for the teams.
“A lot of the tracks that we have tend to be the big start-stoppy tracks or big flowy tracks,” Foster said. “It merges those together a little bit. It’s definitely difficult to set up the car just because you’ve got so many different types of corners that you’ve got to worry about.
“You’ve got really high-speed, high-committing corners and then you’ve also got three really slow hairpins. So it’s quite hard to figure out the balance and what’s optimal for that track.”
There were never more than 14 cars racing at once during the heat race format leading into the 12-car shootout for the main prize in IndyCar’s Thermal visit earlier this year. How a race with 27 cars will pan out is somewhat of an unknown.
“There’s quite a lot of combination corners, which does make it difficult to pass for sure,” Foster said. “But there’s some decently long straights where you can get a good slipstream and try and get past people. With that many cars on the track, I think it could be quite hectic.”
Foster does not have to wait too long until a fairly busy off-season of testing continues. First of all, he will be on track at Laguna Seca on the first Tuesday of December to conclude his on-track activity for 2024.
Into the new year, he has a rookie test and the series-organised test at Sebring International Raceway. A first IndyCar outing on an oval ahead of the Indianapolis 500 open test and Foster’s first Month of May is planned for March time, likely at Nashville Superspeedway.
“Obviously now having our first test behind us, we’ve progressed as a team a lot there and understanding of each other’s improved a lot,” Foster said after hitting the track for the first time after over a month of getting to know the team.
“[So far it has been] mainly just smaller things, media stuff with the team, being in the shop to do seat fits and pit stop practices. Just generally trying to be around and get to know people and trying to settle myself there.
“It has been pretty smooth sailing. Everyone is really nice - I’m getting to know them more and more and more. It’s been good so far and we’re looking forward to what’s to come.”
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