Ferrari has had discussions about 2022 IndyCar entry

Indycar Racing News

Ferrari is considering a 2022 IndyCar entry with hybrid engine, to avoid redundancies when F1 cost cap is introduced

Kimi Raikkonen at Indianapolis in 2007

Ferrari considering a return to Indianapolis in an IndyCar

DPPI

Ferrari has had discussions with IndyCar about entering a team in the 2022 championship, the series owner, Roger Penske, has said.

The introduction of Formula 1’s cost cap next year, will free funds for the Italian team to race in another top-level series – a move which would help them to reduce layoffs at Maranello.

IndyCar is an obvious candidate, with Ferrari able to use its F1 engine expertise to develop a hybrid unit for new regulations being introduced in 2022.

“We are looking at potentially adding other manufacturers,” said Penske on the Brick-by-Brick Sirius XM podcast.

“You’ve probably heard it, There have been discussions with Ferrari, [it] might be interested in joining the series, coming in 2022 when we have new engine rules and that would be a great asset to have a third manufacturer in the series.”

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Mattia Binotto, Ferrari’s team principal, confirmed last month that the team was considering an IndyCar entry to avoid extensive redundancies. It’s thought that almost $100m of savings are needed to comply with next year’s cost cap.

“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,” said Binotto. “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, but with a change of regulation scheduled in 2022.

Last summer, IndyCar delayed the introduction of new hybrid units from 2021 to 2022, partly in the hope of attracting a third manufacturer to join Chevrolet and Honda in the series.

The engines are expected to produce more than 900bhp and recover energy from the braking system. The electric motors will be integrated into the push-to-pass system, providing more power than at present.

The new engine standard will coincide with the arrival of the next-generation chassis.

Read Mark Hughes’ analysis on the difficulties facing Ferrari, as it looks to maintain its core skills and development ability, while complying with the F1 cost cap in this month’s Motor Sport Magazine.