IndyCar’s Top Free Agents

One way I know Indycar is more stable in the past is that the “Silly Season” where drivers and teams court each other is shorter every year. In the bad old days there would be four or five seats listed TBA until the first practice of the first race of the year. Basically, once a few shoes drop the field will shake itself out, probably by the first of the year. For the sake of this list I’m assuming that Graham Rahal will race for his father next year, Oriol Servia will return to Dryer & Reinbold Racing and Alex Tagaliani stays with Bryan Herta.

Ryan Briscoe

The third driver at Penske is probably key to the driver chart this year. Rodger Penske has said he’d like to bring Briscoe back, but said he also free to look. Rumor has it he has an offer in hand from AJ Foyt Enterprises but is waiting to hear from Penske.

September 2, 2012; Baltimore, MD, USA; IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe waves to the crowd after placing second in the Baltimore Grand Prix in downtown Baltimore. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-US PRESSWIRE

Rubens Barrichello

He might not return to KV Racing, and is rumored to be going to Schmidt-Hamilton Racing as a teammate to Simone Pagenaud. In several recent interviews however Rubens has proclaimed his desire to return to Formula 1.

Justin Wilson

Wilson has elevated every team he’s driven for. He won at Texas with Dale Coyne this year, and will probably return there. However, a number of teams would hire him if money was not an issue.

Takuma Sato

He’s been very quiet this year, but won a lot of fans with his checkers or wrecker move at the Indy 500 this year. He’s had Honda backing throughout his career and there’s no reason to think that will end anytime soon.

Mikhail Aleshin

A former member of the Red Bull Junior Team won the Renault World Series 3.5 championship in 2010, but has been dropped and has been unremarkable since. He says he’s interested in exploring Indycar “Sooner or Later,” but any ride will be determined by the size of the check he would bring.

EJ Viso

Has check, will travel. Viso has been signing one-year contracts with KV Racing for a while and made clear he won’t be back in 2013. Speculation has him starting his own team, perhaps in a partnership with Ed Carpenter.

Luca Filippi

After working to get a ride with Rahal Letterman Racing went back toItalyand has been racing for Scuderia Coloni, which has burned their bridges with GP2 and have talked about coming to Indycar. With the rumored Italian race perhaps Coloni is closer to coming to America and bringing Filippi with them.

Think of him as a pitcher brought up before his time. Saavedra raced in the Indy 500 as an teenager and pretty much failed to impress anyone. He regrouped, race Indy Lights form Michael Andretti and was fairly impressive. He’s likely to return to AFS for a part time schedule.

Esteban Guerrieri

Two year veteran of the Firestone Indy Lights he’s ready to move up and has a modest budget behind him. He has been linked to Schmidt-Hamilton and could end up at HVM, if they stay in the series, or Dale Coyne Racing.

Tristan Vautier

Winner of the Firestone Indy Lights championship Vautier is working on getting a budget together. He definitely has apart of the $4 to $5 million a driver needs to bring to secure a ride, the questions are will he find enough, and will he find it in time.

James Jake

The British driver has bought Dale Coyne’s second seat for the past two years. His results have been steady, and has gained himself a small but loyal fan base. Jakes will either go to a cheaper series or return to Indycar.

Conor Daly

Is still pursuing an Formula One ride, but has the resume to merit a ride in Indycar. He doesn’t have the funding to buy a seat today