Palou salutes retiring engineer Robertson

Julian Robertson has retired from Chip Ganassi Racing after more than 30 years of service as a race engineer and technical leader within its CART, Indy Racing League and IndyCar Series programs.

Having won five IndyCar titles with Alex Palou (pictured, top, with Robertson) and the No. 10 Honda since 2021, Robertson’s vast talents propelled the Spaniard’s incredible streak where he’s won four consecutive championships, the 2025 Indianapolis 500 and captured 25 race wins, which has the 29-year-old holding 17th on the all-time victory list.

Robertson joined Ganassi in the mid-1990s after learning his craft in Formula 1, and after spending most of the decade contemplating retirement, the Briton has called time on a remarkable career.

“He was here since the beginning,” Palou said of Robertson. “He already told me the first year I got into CGR that it was he was gonna retire, and I kind of tried to always say, ‘Hey, Julian, let’s do one more, let’s do one more, let’s do one more.’ And at the end, he reached a point of like, ‘Alex, I think I think I’m good. I think I had a lot of success. I had a lot of fun,’ and he’s just ready to enjoy watching the races.

“So yeah, I’ve learned a lot from him. I won a lot because of him, and I’m excited about what we can do with the new engineer. I'm very excited for the new person. But I’m just very thankful for Julian. It’s just been incredible times with him.”

Robertson’s successor on the No. 10 car has not been named, but Ganassi veteran Angela Ashmore (pictured above, with Palou during last week’s Dallara IR-28 test at Sebring), who’s engineered Marcus Armstrong for the last two years as part of Ganassi’s technical alliance with Meyer Shank Racing, is tipped to partner with Palou.

With the confirmation of Robertson’s retirement, Ganassi finds itself facing losses of its two most successful and influential engineers and technical minds as performance director Chris Simmons tendered his resignation and will join Arrow McLaren in January. It has also lost its most successful new engineer in Ross Bunnell, who won multiple races as Scott Dixon’s race engineer and won the Indy 500 in May with Felix Rosenqvist at Meyer Shank. Bunnell will join Simmons at Arrow McLaren.

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