ECR appoints Audi LMP1 engineer for Hildebrand

Driver and crew changes are a normal part of life in the Verizon IndyCar Series, and with Ed Carpenter Racing's No. 21 Chevy program both are new in 2017 as JR Hildebrand fills the seat and former Audi LMP1 engineer Justin Taylor takes over the engineering duties.

ECR's decision to hire from outside the familiar open-wheel engineering ranks was a definite surprise, but with Taylor, the team has found an all-American solution to fit within its all-American program. The Colorado native might be new to IndyCar racing, but with his expertise in engineering massively advanced vehicles like Audi's Le Mans-winning R18s (that's Taylor at far right, below), the comparatively tame technology contained within the Dallara DW12 chassis should be easy to grasp.

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One thing Taylor's sports car experience can't replace is a lack of familiarity with ovals. He's fortunate to have landed with one of IndyCar's best oval teams, and veteran ECR engineer Matt Barnes, who looks after team owner/driver Ed Carpenter in the No. 20 car, will surely help Taylor get up to speed here at Phoenix and the on other ovals, but there's also another complexity to consider.

"Yeah, we've been doing some sim work, but this is the first time we will have worked together on track – it's our first test," Hildebrand told RACER. "The good thing is we're at a track where the team was fast last year. It will probably be a little bit of a trial by fire for Justin, but we've enjoyed getting the process started with him.

"And he has really good support from Matt and everyone here, plus, he's a really talented guy, so I'm not really worried about him figuring it out. We don't have an overly ambitious test plan, and it's also been a long time since I've run here. It's been a couple of years, so we'll work up to getting dialed in together."

The standing around and waiting at IndyCar tests – somewhat of a norm when teams are looking to conserve sets of tires – was one of the first differences Taylor observed at Phoenix. "This is a lot different from what I came from," he said, noting the almost constant on-track activity in sports car tests.

For a technology-driven individual like Hildebrand, having a like-minded person in charge of his No. 21 Chevy – especially with Taylor coming from Audi's space-age all-wheel-drive turbodiesel hybrid prototypes – is a perfect fit.

"He's from Denver, where I live now, and he's come up through the ALMS with Audi, went to the Le Mans program with them and then became part of Audi's World Endurance Championship program, and even though he has spent a lot of time recently in Europe, he knows how the racing goes here and it's cool to work with someone who's had a lot of success in something that's very different from IndyCar," Hildebrand said.

"He brings a fresh perspective to what we're doing, and I think his road racing experience will also be a really good thing here. We know ECR is strong on ovals, and we've been strong on road courses – with Josef in particular – and I think Justin's going to come up with great ideas on everything we have to face in this series that will help continue ECR's growth in IndyCar."