An all-new line-up with Jack Harvey in for 14 races and Nolan Siegel doing the other four, while the #51 car only has Braun confirmed for the first two races.While Coyne has finished last in these rankings there’s plenty of nostalgic love for it from Matt Beer and Sam Smith.A bit of a surprise pick-and-mix driver line-up being announced what felt like hours before the opener is a bit retro from Coyne,” says Beer.It’s three quite interesting drivers rather than the pay driver nobodies that once propped the team up, but it’s a far cry from the days of running the likes of Justin Wilson or Sebastien Bourdais.”
There are “too many question marks” over Harvey, reckons Josh Suttill, but Andrew van de Burgt calls Braun “one of the finest sportscar races of his generation”.No shortage of intrigue in this line-up but the mix of Harvey’s recent poor form – “he’s drunk from more last-chance saloons than Gary Cooper,” adds van de Burgt – and no idea what to expect from the other pair make this a tough sell.
A disappointing 2023 rookie (Sting Ray Robb) replaces a disappointing 2023 rookie (Benjamin Pedersen) in this team, and it’s only Josh Suttill,s oval heroics that mean it has avoided the bottom spot.
“Ferrucci does harbour a lot of natural driving talent and he led AJ Foyt to an Indy 500 top-three last year, which I’m not convinced that many other drivers around the back of the grid could have done,” says Suttill.
Smith sums up the mood on Robb: “What to say about Sting Ray Robb, apart from the fact he probably should be doing something else in a series more compatible to his tal
Christian Rasmussen is the reigning Indy NXT champion, and its recent graduates have proven very handy in the IndyCar series. Team boss Ed Carpenter sharing a car means he shouldn’t be the victim of having to qualify first on the ovals (where the order is set on entrant points), which has certainly contributed to his recent poor form when he’s been in an occasional third car for a team that’s now cut down to two.
The big question is about race winner VeeKay. Beer says his “high points are often spectacular” but “the days when it seemed like he’d be fought over in the driver market seem a while ago”.
IndyCar correspondent Jack Benyon adds: “I sympathise with those who’ve expected more from VeeKay but it comes with the context that this team has focused more on the Indy 500 than most – and been left behind by the engineering focus other teams have invested
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