Cadillac is joining F1 for the 2026 season. It took a lot of corporate wrangling and the loss of the Andretti name, but the entry was approved. With two new open seats on the grid, we’ve seen rampant speculation as to who will fill those precious spots.
A media storm has floated Daniel Ricciardo as a shoe-in for the job. When the Cadillac news dropped, Planet F1 got so over-excited it seemingly accidentally published a headline stating Ricciardo was already in at the American team, as seen below. Forbes ran with the story, as did Crash. This week, Grandprix.com ran to the presses saying Ricciardo was a hot favorite at Cadillac, citing German newspaper Bild. Only, the German outlet’s article cites non-specific “US media reports” as its source. The whole thing is a rumor running on fumes, seemingly sustaining itself as it bounces around from outlet to outlet.
As far as hiring Daniel Ricciardo goes, I’m not sure I could imagine a worse move for the upstart Formula 1 team. Let me explain why.
Governance! Governance!
It’s easy to see Ricciardo’s appeal. He’s been a beloved fixture in the sport for years. Whether it’s drinking from shoes or beaming that flawless smile, he could light up any telecast back at his peak. He was pretty handy behind the wheel, too, at one stage besting a four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in similar equipment. He rarely put a foot wrong, and was widely celebrated as a future World Champion. He’s won fans across the world, particularly in the American market.
Viewed in that context, Ricciardo sounds like a gem. Universally popular, and he’s beloved in the very country where Cadillac hangs its hat. “He’d be perfect, he’s so experienced!” goes the cry from the comments section. “They’ll love him in the States, and he’ll sell so much merch!”The problem is, these people are viewing Ricciardo with rose-colored glasses. The charming Aussie with the hot foot hasn’t been around the paddock for a long time. 2024 saw a Honey Badger that was a shell of his former self. Each Grand Prix spawned another difficult interview, the format always the same—with an increasingly dejected Ricciardo looking off into space as he tried to explain another week off the pace.
Here’s the thing—if you’re building a new Formula 1 team, you have a huge and difficult job ahead of you. You need talented people performing at their very best, week in, week out. On top of that, they need the right attitude. I don’t believe Ricciardo can deliver on either one of those counts.
When it comes to performance, Ricciardo’s last great drive was the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. The win seemed to indicate he’d finally figured out how to drive the McLaren, and more glory was surely to come. As soon as the next race, it was clear this wasn’t the case. The malaise was back, both in Ricciardo’s driving and his demeanor. It was just a year later that McLaren paid him out to end his contract early. He left the team with one win, precious few points, and his confidence seemingly shattered. A late return to Visa Cash App RB sought to see if the Red Bull B-team could revive his winning ways, only to end in a mid-season dismissal at the Singapore Grand Prix, entirely devoid of celebration or fanfare.Honestly, imagine you’re an executive at the new Cadillac team. You answer to the head honchos at GM and, ultimately, the shareholders. You have to jump on a call and tell them you’ve hired the Australian. Yes, the guy who was so bad, McLaren paid $24.2 million to STOP racing for them. Yes, the guy who went back to the junior team at age 34, only to be fired again before he raced a full season.
Up against those arguments, I can’t believe anyone would want to take a bet on Ricciardo. Beyond that, there’s the general vibes in the team to consider. You want to start off on the right foot. An experienced driver would be key, particularly when it comes to developing the car. But more than that, you need one you can trust—and one that can inspire the team as a whole.
Ricciardo’s performance has been so questionable in recent years, that it’s hard to imagine F1 engineers lining up for his feedback. Particularly when reflecting on his struggles with understanding how to drive McLaren’s car quickly. Furthermore, Ricciardo has weathered so many hard times of late, it’s hard to imagine him bringing a lot of hope to a struggling new team. If things got tough—and they almost certainly will—could he really rally the troops? Or would we get more of those shrugs and sighs in interviews when the performance just isn’t there?
Any appeals to Ricciardo’s fame are pointless distractions, anyway. Sure, the fans love him. But they don’t love when he drops out in Q1 week after week, and they don’t love seeing him miserable on the telecast. Plus, Cadillac isn’t getting into F1 to sell merch. They want to compete and presumably one day win races. A popular driver is a nice thing to have. A fast one is an absolute must.
Better Candidates
Real talk—Formula 1 is not ultimate frisbee [Ed note: I’m feeling attacked – MH]. You don’t just do a whip around the dorms and find some willing long-haired hooligans to fill out the team. It’s a technological battlefield where the price of entry is $450 million—and that’s before you even start hiring or building the car. This is a sport that requires the utmost commitment just to avoid being a global embarrassment. Just ask Renault how things have been going the last few years.
Cadillac dearly needs solid hands on the wheel. Word on the street is that Indycar driver Colton Herta is very much in the running. He’s a promising prospect, and likely to get a seat. However, he’s also just 24 years old, and has no real F1 experience. The question is, who would be best suited to pair with the young American?
Bull. A move could be appealing to him.Yuki Tsunoda could be a decent shout. He’s outperformed many a team mate at Visa Cash App RB, and Red Bull have seemingly zero interest in promoting him to the senior team. He’s also out of contract at the end of 2025. He’d be my prime suggestion, only Cadillac would probably have to pay off Red Bull and/or his key sponsor Honda to get him on board.
There are other experienced F1 drivers out there, many of whom have less of a cloud over their names. Valtteri Bottas hasn’t impressed since his move to Sauber, to be true. At the same time, much of that seems likely down to a car problem. He’s free now, and likely quite cheap. Kevin Magnussen might not be a world-beating talent, but he’s done surprisingly well at Haas of late, and hasn’t got the same black mark on his name that Ricciardo does.
I’d also like to float the wildcard of Franco Colapinto, but I can understand if Cadillac would be wary about hiring a 21-year-old with just 9 starts. He’s crashed a little too often, and is very limited in experience, but his speed did see him win many fans this year.
The difficulty that Cadillac has is that all the good drivers were snapped up before its entry was approved. Carlos Sainz would have been a perfect buy—he’s a 2024 race winner, and he’s been right up the front week in, week out. He very much deserves a top drive and knows what’s what. It’s just a shame he signed on for multiple years at Williams before Cadillac got a shot at him. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly are also solid drivers outside the big teams, but they’re locked in at Haas and Alpine for some time.
Funnily enough, Cadillac might not even get Daniel Ricciardo even if they do want him. Last week, a Toyota executive allegedly told Race.news that Akio Toyoda was prepared to make a “whatever it takes” bid to get Ricciardo behind the wheel of a GR Supra in Supercars in 2026. That would be a perfect home for the Australian racer—somewhere he could trade on his fame with a lot less pressure than F1.
Ultimately, I can’t say who will drive for Cadillac in 2026. What I can say is Daniel Ricciardo is not a safe bet, and shouldn’t be the man for the job. I’m looking forward to the excitement of a new team joining the series, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. I’d just hate to see them make a huge mistake right from the drop.
Image credits: Visa Cash App RB, Red Bull, Supercars
“You think I’ve never ridden in a Cadillac? I’ve ridden in a Cadillac hundreds of times, THOUSANDS!”
Herta isn’t even the best driver on Andretti’s IndyCar team. I would give that honor to Kirkwood, but it’s a moot point because neither of them have the SuperLicence points to get into F1, and unless one of them wins the IndyCar crown next season (laughs in Palou), they won’t in time for the Cadillac F1 effort either.
F1 isn’t like racing in the U.S., in my opinion you’re going to want a guy who spent his time in juniors in Europe. I could see Bottas or Magnussen filling that senior driver role nicely. If Andretti is dead set on having an American on the team, then the obvious choice is Jak Crawford. He doesn’t have the SL points yet, but he should after next season.
I do wonder how long it will be before the Andretti name mysteriously reappears on the letterhead, and I’m particularly interested in what becomes of Michael’s plan to run a full complement of F3 and F2 teams.
They should hire Danny, but not to drive the car. He is a smart, calming and charismatic person to have about. Having him in the pits especially if they go with two younger less experienced drivers would serve them well. Also, they need someone well known to get some good first couple of year brand awareness.
But yeah, I think driving F1, he is broken.
I’m rooting for Nikola Tsolov here. By the time they get ready, he will be.
They want an American, so Jak Crawford should be your answer. Ugo is at the same level as Nikola at the moment, but I don’t think either will be ready by ’26, too many steps to go yet.
I think we’re about to see what happens when you skip steps too rapidly with Antonelli.
Yes Danny’s best days are behind him. But so were Coulthard’s when he joined red bull and Schumacher when he joined Mercedes. They don’t need a world beater – they won’t be competitive for a few years – they need someone experienced that is enthusiastic about developing the car. He wasn’t that far off yuki, he could certainly develop a car.
Now, Ricciardo has always said that he is not happy unless he’s in a car that can win. So this I think is the reason he won’t drive for Cadillac, he just won’t want to.
Yep, Daniel’s best days are well behind him. I’m curious to see how important it is for them to have an American driver. If it’s a must, It will almost certainly be Herta, although I think Kirkwood is fast and worthy of a test. Newgarden is probably the best American open wheeler, but at 30 I guess he’s too old? If they’re taking from IndyCar, Palou is obviously a standout, but O’Ward has been putting down good FP1 lap times for McLaren for a few years and has a huge fanbase. I think the move is to pair one of those guys with a steady F1 vet like Bottas or Magnussen. Better yet, give Williams all of the money and get Sainz to anchor your team.
Sadly agreed, Danny’s best days seem to be in the rearview. Tsunoda seems to have potential but also makes an awful lot of mistakes and while you gotta take Drive to Survive with a massive grain of salt comes across as being a bit difficult to work with-I mean you do gotta wonder why he hasn’t been promoted yet, especially given Checo’s plummeting performance this season.
Would be interesting to see how Herta would do. Of course the flip side for the better driver’s even if they were out of contract, Cadillac is an unproven quantity that will likely be at least a few years out before they have a competitive car.
I’ve only recently started following the sport, but Bottas sure seems like a good driver. The Sauber cars suck and you can’t put that completely on Bottas or Guanyu. Notably, Bottas holds the record for most career points without a championship. I’m not sure if that’s a plus or a minus.
I think Bottas would be a good development driver as he’s experienced enough to give good feedback, but I don’t think he’s a future champion at this point. They should get someone from F2 as the other driver. I think Colapinto would be a great choice, and there are several others from the last couple years that have missed out on F! due only to the lack of available seats.
I see Bottas as a solid option, hire a promising young gun next to him. Bottas has experience from a championship winning team and could be, again, a solid measure stick to compare. I think it would be too much of a risk to put too newbies in cars and there really isn’t any better quality options available right now.
Yes Checo, you have a contract with red bull next year.
But as I once understood that contract is with the whole red bull family, so that includes T
orro Rosso,VCARB,Alpha Tauri, that other Red Bull team. So they can just demote you instead of kill the contract.(I don’t know how broad the contract is, but lets hope for Perez that the soap box race is not included in the racing family)
I am not even sure what is the purpose for Cadillac / GM of entering F1. I get the idea of mass marketing, but who are they planning to attract?
Europe and China are not buying many GM products. GM hardly sell anything in Europe. In China after the initial sugar-rush, GM sales have been declining. Even here in the US, I do not see people watching F1 rushing to get a Cadillac Escalade because “it is just like a F1”.
GM has not experience building F1 engines or building their own purpose-built racing chassis. I just do not see GM having a long-term commitment to fund the program until they achieve success, if any. Am I missing something?
At this point GM is looking for anything to draw eyes to Cadillac. F1 draws a lot of eyes in the US. If nothing else it might remind luxury car buyers that they exist.
I understand the idea, but would anybody buy Cadillac just because they saw their F1 team finish last in the championship?
They might at least say “Cadillac still exists?”, followed by a quick Google search to find they offer decent luxury cars at decent prices. Could snag a few sales. Considering it seems like they’re grasping at whatever they can to hold on, it couldn’t hurt.
Was just chatting w a buddy about this. Cadillac’s racing efforts do have some tie in to their reportedly stellar V series performance cars, BUT, most of their cars aren’t V series. And as near as I can tell they really have never figured out how to make the V cars help drive sales of their other products which are largely not performance oriented at all. I think they’re trying to copy how BMW blew up in the ’80s but missing the fact that part of what made BMW good was that even if you couldnt’ afford an M car you could still feel that DNA in a entry level 3 series. But also you can’t blame them for not wanting to ditch what remains of their old customer base but then it leaves them with this split brand that really doesn’t make a lot of sense.
I’m pretty sure an entry-level ATS or CTS still share the same DNA as the V models. Their struggle is to even enter into the headspace of badge-conscious buyers. Being involved in the most expensive/exclusive motorsport on the planet is a good way to make people aware of your presence. Will it work? No clue, but it’s not the worst idea.
Fair point-adding more prestige to their image makes sense. I do question how much that rubs off though on say something like the Lyriq, but I am admittedly not their target audience.
Cadillac participates in the highest level of IMSA/WEC and GM runs Corvettes in those series too, so I don’t think high level global racing is some completely foreign venture for them. All of these companies are doing it though. Ford is jumping into business with Red Bull to what? Sell more Mustangs because they are somehow now related to Red Bull F1 cars now? No one will think that, but it is all about brand awareness and showing that your car company can do badass stuff with cars.
I don’t care a bout any sports at all, including Formula One. I just clicked the article because I love the aero hubcaps on that Cadillac race car in the top shot. Would love something like that on my 1991 VW Eurovan, I’m on-and-off working on at the moment.
Is it just me, or is that Supra above so much nicer looking than the actual car? Is there a reason the road car needs to be more carved and gilled than the actual racer?
I watch F1 regularly. I sometimes wonder if reporters, commentators, and team principles are watching the same races. Who in their right mind would hire Ricciardo, Perez, Bottas at this stage in their career? All were very good but have lost their motivation/talent/nerve/invincibility at some point.
Why is Bottas getting thrown in with Ricciardo? Bottas seems to have been hindered by the cars he’s been given, while the other two just don’t seem to have it any more. Is Bottas in his prime? No, I don’t think so. But I think he’d be a good hire for a new team.
If I’m in charge, Bottas is exactly the type of driver I’m looking for.
Because Bottas is not a serious individual any more. He is one of the most fun and personally centered drivers but he has neither the gravitas or the drive to drag an organization like GM into F1 respectability.
He’s serious. Just because he has fun, doesn’t mean he isn’t serious.
Besides, who the heck would you realistically get that isn’t Bottas? Saying you wouldn’t chose someone, implies there are better (and realistic) alternatives.
Bottas’ success came mostly from driving the fastest car in the field every week. Perez looked like a world-beater in 2023 as well, but as soon as the pack caught up look what happened to him.
Do you even watch?
Bottas is a qualifying master. He lacks in racecraft, but he did that in the Merc as well. Before going to Merc, he managed to get a 4th, 5th and 8th place finishes in the WDC with Williams. He’s a talented driver.
And Perez didn’t look like a world-beater ever. He got absolutely trounced by Verstappen, and was clearly an inferior driver held up by a great car the entire time. The worst Bottas ever came in relation to Hamilton for the WDC was 5th, meanwhile Perez is coming in 8th this year.
Perez was 2nd last year, and 3rd wasn’t even close. I’m not saying Bottas today is as slow as Perez today, just that they both did well in dominant cars, but haven’t been so impressive since. Their careers are eerily similar other than Perez managing to absolutely fall off of a cliff while still at a big team while Bottas got kicked to the curb before the same thing could happen to him. At least he’s usually quicker than Zho, I guess.
What are you talking about!?!?! Perez (285pts) came in second, but didn’t even have half as many points as Verstappen (575pts), and was only 51 points ahead of Hamilton (234pts).
Heck, in 2022 he had an the RB18 and couldn’t manage 2nd place.
In 2021 when both the Merc and RB were good (Merc overall better), there were more points between Perez (190pts) and Bottas (226pts) than the person that came after Perez (Sainz 164.5pts), and the Ferrari was way behind the W12 and RB16B.
It’s hard to truly say, but it should be obvious that the tractors Sauber have put out the past 3 years are the main cause for Bottas performance than anything else.
Perez has been given rocket ships and can’t do shit with them. Ricciardo was given competitive (but not world beaters by any means) at Renault and McLaren and he way under performed them. Then at AT/VCARB he underperformed as well.
Bottas has done about as good as you can expect for what C42/C43/C44 have been.
I think the point is they may need/want an experienced F1 driver to help with development. There’s not some world beater just sitting out there, so someone like Bottas is probably a good choice to help get your team off the ground over the first couple of seasons. After that, some of the good younger drivers will be out of their current contracts and you can scoop one of them up.
I missed a memo. Why is the Andretti operation out of the running?
It’s just politics. It’s still using the team/infrastructure that Andretti built up, it just no longer has the Andretti name attached.
Michael pissed off the elitists in FOM.
I’d think Bottas would be high on the list at this point. Since it seems like Herta (or perhaps another young Indycar driver) will be one seat, the prudent move is to have an F1 veteran in the other. With Bottas set to sit out next season I’m sure he’ll be itching to get back into F1. He’s now seen two ends of the team spectrum with Mercedes at their height and the embarrassment of Sauber, so he should have some valuable insight into what to do/not to do to be successful in F1.
Tsunoda still seems to have a hot head sometimes, not sure if he’d be a good in the “stable veteran” role. Plus I’m sure his preference will be for Aston Martin once they have a Honda engine assuming one of those seats opens up.
Did you watch Abu Dhabi? Bottas is as washed as Ricciardo.
At this point I have no clue how to judge Bottas ability, there’s clearly a lot lacking, but that car was an utter pile of garbage the entire season, and Bottas himself has already publicly admitted the team switch was a mistake and he would’ve been better off at Williams. I’m sure there’s some pace left, season long results were Bottas demolishing Zhou 12-8 in race classification, and 20-3 in qualifying.
That said, the car was so poor, and Sauber strategy and early season pit stop disasters have made the appearance of Bottas performance bad enough that he’s certainly in damaged goods territory compared to when he entered Sauber. I still argue that Bottas would be a very solid test/reserve driver for Cadillac to build upon given how much time he’s spent around a championship winning team. Understanding those practices and workflows will be crucial if Cadillac F1 want’s to be flexible and be able to move up the grid quickly.
Fine, make Bottas your reserve driver. I have no idea how good he might be in car development but maybe he can help set organizational expectations. Bottas was a speed horse like Vettel, Rosburg, and now Lando. Give them a fast car and the lead and they will never look back but ask them to bully their way to the front and they can’t do it because racing is something they are very good at but not something they must do, like a Verstappen or Alonso. And after some success they lose interest because the motivation is not internal.
You hit on the key there. You want a driver who will be a machine and make the car better, not just one who can drive the snot out of anything he gets his hands on. Schumacher was that guy (ok, he was both). He did it with Ferrari and he did it again with Merc. The team needs one workhorse and one show horse.
More than anything….Ricciardo was never a good feedback driver to begin with. He was never the go-to for driver input to make car adjustments. He had a great feel for one Red Bull chassis, an awesome personality, shoe-ees, and not much else. I know the “solid veteran who can help the team develop the chassis on track” is a boring roll, but it is what Cadillac needs for one of its drivers. And that’s not Daniel.
Colapinto might’ve crashed a bit much but when you’re thrown in the deep end, and you get results at the start, that helps a lot. Everyone has been crashy in that car, even Albon recently. Sainz next year will be the true barometer for me.
K-Mag is the obvious shout since he has literally raced for Caddy in IMSA. An experienced hand who doesn’t shunt too often (unless it’s into another driver lol).
Sainz is going to expose Albon at Williams in short order, I think. I get that he’s Lewis Freaking Hamilton but why Ferrari would chose 40-year-old-Lewis over 30-year-old Carlos, I have no idea. Carlos has a race mind like few others on the grid at this moment.
I like your KMag suggestion though.
Next year is definitely Albon’s most important year. I like Albon a lot, I do hope he does well. But when Colapinto hit the ground running it seemed to throw Alex off. I still can’t imagine him outperforming Sainz, especially after the first 3 rounds or so.
cadillac can take a flyer on second seat on an unproven talent (e.g. Herta), but they need a reference driver as #1, one with predictable good pace and ability to communicate with engineers to develop the car.
Danny Ric is not that driver.
should cadillac sign him (an obvious PR move instead of a sporting move) that will be a clear indication they are not serious.
Much as I have loved Ricciardo this is dead on, he needs to race something other than F1 and realize he’s still a great racer, just the time in that series is over.
Could it be that Cadillac joining F1 in the first place is actually the Worst Possible Decision?
Tsunoda and Herta are an ideal combo. Tsunoda being out of contract for 2026, but having proven speed and experience will go a very long way towards early development, and he will be itching to get out of RB stable after getting looked over for a promotion for the ump-teenth time, and will be cheaper than a superstar.
Herta on the other hand has a wealth of speed in IndyCar, will almost certainly have a super license come 2026, and is already under contract with and well regarded by the Andretti stable and most importantly liked by Towriss who is more or less heading the Caddilac/Andretti Global team. He’s got great commercial value in the US, will help the GM/US image, and has potential as a long term star should he deliver, all while being cheaper than a current F1 driver.
Danny Ric would ONLY have value in a test/development role, which may be useful for him. He’s a cheap pickup compared to currently available talent like Bottas, has plenty of experience to at least help with car fundamentals. Sure is his peaks are too low to justify a race seat, but at the absolute worst, he has so much experience that will have value to a team starting from the ground up. He can provide a ton of worthwhile feedback on operations, chassis basics, and would still be a great commercial asset which shouldn’t be underestimated with the amount of cash outlay required to join the grid.
I don’t know about Herta. He hasn’t won any championship since F1600, and that is one step above karts. I can think of a couple of Indy drivers more capable.
I won’t argue about skill level at all, since there is clearly valid criticism out there about his actual ceiling, but he does seem to be Dan Towriss’ golden goose to an extent, and would do wonders for marketing having an all new American team with a hot-shot American driver at the helm. Whether it will turn into results on track is a different story, but it seems like far from the worst starting place.
Newgarden may have zero charisma but he is a proven winner. Also Kirkwood has won everything you can win on the way to Indy. Both Americans. Not to mention Palou, O’Ward or Pourchaire, not Americans.
Thank you, 100% agree. I don’t understand the hype around Herta. He came out young and fast, surprised some people, won a race or two. And has kind of plateaued in my eyes. Kirkwood is already better than him.
If they’re serious about winning, they’ll look beyond Herta and other Indycar drivers. There is a great wealth of talent in F2 and recently graduated from F2 that would perform much better. As fun as it can be to watch, the talent in Indycar is not on par with the talent in F2.
I’m gonna be completely honest, I don’t think hiring a guy out of IndyCar is a good idea, unless he spent his time in juniors in Europe. Things are just different over there. Race procedure is different. Tracks are different. Expectations are different.
Tsunoda seems fun, as long as you’re not his race engineer, but do we know he’s good at car development?
I love Danny Ric. You love Danny Ric. We all love Danny Ric. Please don’t hire Danny Ric.
Really, if you want to get off on “the right foot”, you need good retired drivers in coaching positions. I’m thinking Dario Franchitti, Sebastian Vettel, Tony Kanaan.
Colton Herta is a good idea. Maybe Alexander Rossi, or even Josef Newgarden, who is still young enough and is a fitness maniac. Newgarden brings serious pedigree, but probably wouldn’t leave his very comfortable Penske seat.
Here’s a wild one, Santino Ferrucci. Yes, he’s crazy, but he’s also very fast and comes from a family that has prepared him for F1 life.
I’d love to see Dixie get a shot, but he’s probably too old and he’s more focused on his family now.
Alex Palou, Pato O’Ward, and Scott McLaughlin are all great candidates, but would they leave Indycar?
Please, not RoGro, and definitely not Stingray Robb.
Connor Daly?
I think Colton Herta is a cert at this point. He’s an American for the American team, he has some test experience in the McClaren, he’s a known commodity at least in enough racing circles to make that worth Cadillac’s while. The someone else that they need is someone with a load of F1 experience, even if it’s only on a two year driving stint with another few years in a non-driving development capacity. A Bottas would be a good shout and not out of the running- he already grew a mullet so he should fit in
Herta is the way to go. I hate to see my favorite Indycar drivers get poached for what I think is a massively overrated F1 spectacle, but he’s the right choice politically and from a marketing standpoint. I think he’ll fall flat on his face, but he’s the guy they need to kick things off. As probably the unluckiest driver in Indycar right now, he’s also used to having things that aren’t his fault torpedo his chances in a race, and god knows that’s going to happen to Cadillac for a while.
Ferrucci is a punk. Fuck him. But he’s got the elitist attitude that’ll fit right in with the rest of the F1 crowd, and if there’s one driver I’d rather not have in Indycar anymore and would love seeing him flail around in F1, it’s him. But he’s got a sweet deal with Foyt right now, and fits well in that organization, too, so he’s not going anywhere.
Newgarden is the Indycar golden boy right now. No way in hell he’s leaving. He’s also a big dude and would probably have to lose 30 pounds to get around some obscure rule in the F1 book that says you’re not allowed to cast a shadow on Verstappen or be taller than Lewis Hamilton or something.
Well, yeah, I did say Ferrucci was crazy, and yeah he would fit right in with the likes of LeClerc and Stroll. His daddy writes some big checks to AJ.
I agree that it would suck to lose good IndyCar drivers, but I think it’s inevitable. Most of these guys grew up dreaming of Spa, not Iowa.