Schmidt Peterson Motorsports recently announced that Tristan Gommendy will be driving for the team in next year’s Indianapolis 500, hinting about the team’s full-time IndyCar lineup next season in the process.
When Schmidt Peterson Motorsports announced that Tristan Gommendy would be driving in his first IndyCar race since his CART days back in 2007 in next year’s Indianapolis 500, they also clued us in to a huge aspect of their plan this offseason in terms of their future driver lineup.
RACER reported that Gommendy will be the driver of the team’s third car, the #77 Honda, for the 102nd running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. The key word there is “third”.
If the news about Gommendy specifically driving the team’s third car at Indy is true, this would be a huge silly season development. It would limit the team that currently has the largest amount of unknowns surrounding them heading into the season finale at Sonoma to just two open seats in 2018.
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While Schmidt hasn’t run more than two full-time cars on any of his IndyCar teams since he became a team owner in the 2001 season, there was speculation that the team would perhaps become a three or even a four-car full-time operation in 2018.
Given that the team has assembled a list of 28 possible drivers to sign for next season, the limited number of seats available going forward could make things very interesting. What is even more telling is what Schmidt Peterson Motorsports co-owner Sam Schmidt had to say about Gommendy coming on board for next year’s Indy 500.
"“We signed a contract a while ago for Didier and Tristan, and we’ve discussed expanding the deal after Indy, but there’s nothing concrete right now. Indy 2018, that’s the plan. We still have to get our second driver in place, so we’ll hold off on making too many plans for the future until that’s done.”"
In other words, the team is looking to lock up James Hinchcliffe for next season and they are still deciding on who Mikhail Aleshin’s full-time replacement will be in the second car. There is no mention of a full-time third car.
Beyond those two cars, there will likely be no more full-time seats to fill unless Schmidt knows more than he is letting on to, which is doubtful given the fact that Schmidt hasn’t run more than two full-time cars on any of his teams since he became a team owner in the 2001 season, as referenced above.
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