The changes you need to know about going into the new IndyCar season

There has been non-stop action within the 10 full-time IndyCar Series teams and their personnel throughout the offseason. With the start of a new championship just days away, get up to speed on the bigger changes, gains, and losses across the paddock as teams get ready to go racing this weekend at St. Petersburg.

AJ Foyt Racing

Losses: David Malukas to Team Penske. Recall of race engineer James Schnabel from Foyt to Penske where he’ll continue engineering Malukas.

Gains and Changes: Caio Collet (pictured above), 2025 Indy NXT race winner and championship runner-up, to the No. 4 Chevy. The team has maintained remarkable year-to-year consistency among its key leaders and crew. The largest change is found with the decision by team president Larry Foyt to do a complete swap of the No. 4 and No. 14 pit crews for 2026. Santino Ferrucci’s No. 14 crew from 2025 is now the crew for Caio Collet on the No. 4, and the No. 4 crew that ran David Malukas last season are now in charge of preparing and running Ferrucci’s No. 14.

With the loss of Schnabel, Foyt technical director Michael Armbrester has returned to his former role as race engineer and will work with Collet.

Will Power replaces Colton Herta at Andretti in one of the biggest moves of the offseason. Joe Skibinski/IMS photo

Andretti Global

Losses: Colton Herta to an in-house program devised by Andretti parent company TWG Motorsports to run Herta in Formula 2 and earn enough super license points to become eligible to race for TWG in its Cadillac Formula 1 team. Race engineer and damper specialist Olivier Boisson to Arrow McLaren.

Gains and Changes: Will Power, who joined Andretti from Team Penske and took over Herta’s No. 26 Honda. Nathan O’Rourke, Herta’s longstanding race engineer, has stepped back from race engineering to fulfill an unspecified shop-based engineering role for the team. Another Andretti veteran, Andy Listes, takes over for O’Rourke on the No. 26 as Power’s race engineer.

A second race engineering change has also been implemented with yet another Andretti veteran as Ron Barnhorst moves onto Marcus Ericsson’s No. 28 Honda timing stand and takes the baton from Dave Syffert.

Along with Power, the greatest gain and change for Andretti comes at the top of the IndyCar leadership structure with former Team Penske managing director Ron Ruzewski, who steps in to run the three-car outfit as team principal and resumes his race strategist role with Power. Andretti’s former leader, Rob Edwards, moves upward to serve as TWG Motorsports’ chief performance officer, but includes the IndyCar in his oversight.

A recent change of crew chief on the No. 26 Honda has also occurred as Nick Allen departed to take a position in technical inspection with IndyCar’s new independent officiating body. He’s been replaced by Andretti veteran Ernie Barrameda.

Arrow McLaren

Losses: Kyle Larson for the Indy 500. General manager Brian Barnhart to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Race Engineer Mike Pawlowski to RLL. Crew chief Heath “Keto” Kosik to RLL. Pit stop manager Kyle Sagan to RLL.

Gains and Changes: Ryan Hunter-Reay from Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the Indy 500 in the No. 31 Chevy, and in support of the team during testing and pre-Indy races. Eric Cowdin from Ed Carpenter Racing as director of engineering. Olivier Boisson from Andretti Global as head of damper engineering.

Chip Ganassi Racing

Losses: None.

Gains and Changes: Continuity – one of the team’s hallmarks – has been maintained during yet another offseason. Team manager Barry Wanser, who also acts as Alex Palou’s race strategist, has retired from full-time duty at Chip Ganassi Racing, moved out of state with his wife Laurie, and will fly in for all races and major tests to continue performing his trackside roles for the No. 10 Honda.

With Wanser stepping back from the shop, the team has adjusted the roles of its other team managers where Blair Julian will take a greater role overseeing the Indianapolis-based shop and various projects, and Mike LeGallic will assume more of the trackside IndyCar team management responsibilities and maintain his position as the managerial link between CGR and technical affiliate Meyer Shank Racing.

Romain Grosjean returns as part of a refreshed DCR driver line-up. Chris Owens/IMS photo

Dale Coyne Racing

Losses: Rinus VeeKay to Juncos Hollinger Racing. Jacob Abel to IMSA and international sports car racing.

Gains and Changes: Romain Grosjean, who returns to DCR after a year away from IndyCar to drive the No. 18 Honda. Dennis Hauger, the newest Indy NXT champion with Andretti Global, who will contest his rookie season in the No. 19 Honda on loan from Andretti.

With Hauger’s assignment to Coyne, a new technical alliance has been formed with Andretti Global. Race engineer Bill Pappas also returns to Coyne to engineer Grosjean.

Michael Cannon, who rejoined the team after May’s Indy 500, will serve as Hauger’s race engineer. The team also has race engineer Mike Colliver on hand to fortify its technical group.

ECR

Losses: Director of development Eric Cowdin to Arrow McLaren.

Gains and Changes: A possibly amusing note that the team, in light of its new ownership structure led by chairman Ted Gelov, has decided to shift away from using its full name of Ed Carpenter Racing and would like to be referenced by its acronym, ECR.

Derek Davidson joined as team manager from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Chief engineer Matt Barnes was elevated to VP of competition. ECR veteran Quentin Montigaud was promoted to race engineer for Alexander Rossi’s No. 20 Chevy. Former PREMA engineer Robert Gue was hired as senior project engineer. Team co-owner Ed Carpenter will perform race strategy for Rossi at all races except for the Indy 500 when he’s driving the third ECR entry.

Juncos Hollinger Racing

Losses: Conor Daly. Daly’s race engineer Adam Blocker to Chip Ganassi Racing’s Indy NXT program.

Gains and Changes: Rinus VeeKay from Dale Coyne Racing to drive the No. 76 Chevy. JHR’s Townsend Lucas promoted to race engineer for VeeKay. Technical director David Brown to engineer Sting Ray Robb. JHR’s Matthew Nielsen appointed to newly-created role of head of strategy.

Meyer Shank Racing

Losses: None.

Gains and Changes: Like its partner CGR, MSR has embraced continuity as the model for its team during the offseason. Racing veteran Billy Vincent has become Marcus Armstrong’s full-season race strategist after joining the team in the role during the 2025 season.

Schumacher isn't the only new name at RLL. Matt Fraver/IMS photo

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Losses: Devlin DeFrancesco and many of the crew from DeFrancesco’s No. 30 car. Team manager Derek Davidson to ECR.

Gains and Changes: Ex-Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher to drive the No. 47 Honda, which underwent a number change from 30 to 47. Former Arrow McLaren general manager Brian Barnhart as RLL’s Sr. VP of Operations. Former Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward as special advisor. Former Arrow McLaren race engineer Mike Pawlowski as Schumacher’s race engineer. Former Arrow McLaren chief mechanic Heath “Keto” Kosik as Schumacher’s crew chief. Former Arrow McLaren pit stop manager Kyle Sagan as pit stop manager. PREMA Racing sporting director Ryan Briscoe signed on as driver coach.

Team Penske

Losses: Will Power to Andretti Global.

Gains and Changes: David Malukas to replace Power in the No. 12 Chevy. Power’s race engineer David Faustino was promoted to Team Penske IndyCar technical director. Penske race engineer James Schnabel, who spent two seasons assigned to AJ Foyt Racing under the Team Penske technical alliance, returned to continue engineering Malukas on the No. 12 car. Penske competition director Travis Law is the new race strategist for the No. 12.

Scott McLaughlin’s race engineer Ben Bretzman was promoted to engineering manager of competition. Penske IMSA veteran Raul Prados has been assigned as McLaughlin’s new race engineer on the No. 3 Chevy. Former Team Penske president Tim Cindric was hired for race-weekend duties as McLaughlin’s race strategist.

Senior assistant race engineer Robbie Atkinson was promoted to team manager, and chief mechanic Matt Jonsson has become Penske’s new assembly manager.