Ferrari evaluating IndyCar, Binotto confirms

Ferrari is evaluating the possibility of an involvement in IndyCar in future due to Formula 1’s budget cap, team principal Mattia Binotto has confirmed.

With discussions regarding the budget cap ongoing, Binotto recently commented on a desire to avoid losing staff members if the cap was too low. At the time the team principal clarified it was not a quit threat and instead meant Ferrari could become involved in other racing series as well as F1, with a team spokesperson telling RACER: "We are taking into consideration various options at the moment so it would be too premature to give any details about any series.”

Now Binotto has confirmed that if Ferrari needs to reallocate staff as a result of F1’s budget cap -- that was originally going to be $175 million next year but now will be lowered to $145m -- then IndyCar is an avenue that is being explored, with Ferrari keen to stress it would be to run alongside F1, not instead of.

"Ferrari feels a lot of social responsibility towards its employees, and we want to be sure that for each of them there will be a workspace in the future," Binotto told Sky Sports Italia. "For this reason, we have started to evaluate alternative programs and I confirm that we are looking at IndyCar, which is currently a very different category from (F1), but with a change of regulation scheduled in 2022.

“We also observe the world of endurance racing and other series. We will try to make the best choice.”

IndyCar is scheduled to introduce hybrid engines in 2022, something F1 did back in 2014 and Ferrari has extensive knowledge of. McLaren has become more involved in IndyCar in recent years, with Indy 500 attempts being upgraded to a full-season entry in partnership with Schmidt Peterson this season.

At this point it is unclear how Ferrari would see its role in IndyCar, but the new engine regulations will run from 2022 to 2027 initially, and are designed to open up the potential for another OEM to join the series.