Which of the three full-time IndyCar rookies will end up as the 2018 Rookie of the Year when the season concludes in September?
Of the 20 full-time drivers set to compete in the 2018 IndyCar season, three are rookies. Those three rookies are Matheus Leist, Zach Veach and Robert Wickens. Which of those three rookies will end up winning the Rookie of the Year Award after the season concludes?
Matheus Leist, 19, has never driven in an IndyCar race before. He is set to make his debut as a full-time driver for A.J. Foyt Enterprises in the #4 Chevrolet after a 2017 Indy Lights Series season during which he won three races and finished in 4th place in the championship standings.
Zach Veach, 23, has two career IndyCar races under his belt. Both of those races came in the 2017 season, with one coming at Barber as a substitute for J.R. Hildebrand at Ed Carpenter Racing, and another coming in the Indianapolis 500 driving for A.J. Foyt Enterprises. He is set to make his debut as a full-time driver for Andretti Autosport in the #26 Honda.
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Robert Wickens, 28, has never driven in an IndyCar race before. However, he did drive in two practice sessions at Road American last season as a substitute for Mikhail Aleshin at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He is set to make his debut as a full-time driver for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in the #7 Honda that Aleshin drove for much of last season.
As far as a prediction for which rookie will finish higher than the other two in the championship standings, I think that battle will primarily be between Zach Veach and Robert Wickens. Given A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ struggles as a team in recent years, it is hard to picture Matheus Leist having a shot to be in that battle, much less to actually win it.
At the end of the season, I think Veach will be the rookie with the highest finishing position in the championship standings. He is the only rookie with IndyCar race experience, and he has been with Andretti Autosport for much of his Mazda Road to Indy career.
To quote Veach himself from a discussion I had with him at Pocono Raceway in 2015, he stated that the Andretti’s are “like family” to him. His jump to IndyCar as a full-time driver for Andretti Autosport should be far smoother than the jumps to IndyCar as full-time drivers of the other two rookies for their respective teams. Don’t be surprised if he wins a race this season.
While Wickens has tons of racing experience from around the world and is set to drive for a solid Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team in his rookie IndyCar season, the fact that his experience in American open-wheel cars is extremely limited is why he think he will come up just shy of Veach in the final championship standings even if he manages to win at least one race.
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Which IndyCar driver do you think well end up being the 2018 Rookie of the Year? Will it be Matheus Leist, Zach Veach or Robert Wickens? Tune in to the 2018 season from start to finish to find out. It is set to begin on Sunday, March 11th with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.