Last Week in IndyCar (11/16-23/25)

The eyes of the open-wheel world weren’t particularly focused on IndyCar this week. The longest-running story was Super Formula’s season finale, where Ayumu Isawa emerged as champion after a grueling tripleheader at Suzuka. Following that, F1’s title fight got considerably spiced up at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, sending the chances of a triple threat in Abu Dhabi up significantly. But our corner of the sport still had its share of headlines, and as we count down the final 100 days to St. Petersburg, things should only speed up from here. Let’s hold the waffle and get right into the rest of this week’s news platter.

Ericsson enters 12h Malaysia

The news started before last week’s edition of this newsletter was even out, as Marcus Ericsson announced his first crack at GT3 endurance racing early Monday morning. He’ll open his December at the 12 Hours of Malaysia alongside his younger brother Hampus, who’s fresh off winning the Lamborghini Super Trofeo world championship earlier this month.

The two will form half of an all-Swedish four-man lineup as they share the #63 Lamborghini Huracán of German team Leipert Motorsport. Each Ericsson brother brings different forms of experience, as Hampus’s strong form in the Huracán Super Trofeo should easily translate to the GT3 version, while Marcus brings years of track knowledge from running this circuit in Formula One.

Also worth noting is that Ericsson and company were the first drivers announced in any category for this race, giving them even more of a protagonist aura than they’ll inevitably have for however many IndyCar fans tune in to support them.

Prema in financial trouble

Prema had a lot to celebrate in Las Vegas over the weekend, with Doriane Pin becoming F1 Academy champion and the organization collecting their third straight Teams’ Championship. On their IndyCar side of operations, though, the news was much less triumphant. Rumors of financial hardship to the point of potential withdrawal from the series have circulated for months at this point, and Prema boss Rene Rosin admitted the team was “evaluating different solutions” to stay on the grid in a recent interview.

One avenue they’re not exploring, though, is pay drivers. Rosin affirmed the team’s commitment to field both Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman for 2026, as per their multi-year contracts, and should the Italians make it to financial stability and honor that commitment, that could prove to be vital reputation-building in case they happen to have an open seat right as a true star is searching for work.

Sting Ray out?

Speaking of pay drivers, Sting Ray Robb’s standing at Juncos Hollinger Racing is now in question after visitors to the team’s website noticed that his picture next to Rinus VeeKay in the lineup had been replaced with a placeholder. While not officially announced as out, Robb hasn’t been fully affirmed as in either. However, Robb’s agent, Pieter Rossi, is publicly insisting that his client is on a multi-year contract and will be back with JHR next season. The question now, as we watch Juncos sort this out, is what the team truly wants out of VeeKay’s wingman and whether Robb can get enough sponsorship money together to make up for his role as the grid’s comedy relief.

Schumacher in??

When ex-F1 driver Mick Schumacher tested an Indy car for the first time last month, IndyCar’s official PR received him like a king, prompting our own puzzled reaction here at the Afterburn. However, it started to make a little more sense Thursday morning when Schumacher announced on his Instagram that, after two seasons and three podiums, he was leaving Alpine’s World Endurance Championship team. Judging by the note to stay tuned for next year, and that both Álex Palou and Dennis Hauger popped up in the comments to post eye emojis, Schumacher might already have a move to IndyCar lined up.

If there’s fire behind this smoke, Schumacher’s likely landing destination is at Rahal Letterman Lanigan, the team he tested with, who are clearly looking to make upgrades. RLL’s hiring of former Penske engineer and Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward, shows as much. Should they take the German on, he would almost certainly pilot the #30 car, putting an instant end to Devin DeFrancesco’s time with the team.