IndyCar: Prospective new teams for the 2019 season

By Asher Fair | Jun 9, 2018

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MAY 28: Fernando Alonso of Spain, driver of the #29 McLaren-Honda-Andretti Honda (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

Two new teams joined IndyCar full-time this season. How many more teams will join the series full-time in the 2019 season?

Eight teams competed full-time in IndyCar in the 2017 season. That total of eight teams was increased by 25% to 10 teams this season, as Harding Racing and Carlin Motorsport both joined the sport full-time.

Harding Racing joined the series full-time after competing in their first three IndyCar races last season with Gabby Chaves as their driver, and Carlin Motorsport joined IndyCar full-time with no previous experience in the series but tons of experience in other series, including Indy Lights, where they no longer compete as a result of the addition of their full-time IndyCar team.

Chaves drives the #88 Harding Racing Chevrolet full-time, while Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton drive the #23 Carlin Motorsport and the #59 Carlin Motorsport Chevrolet full-time, respectively.

The total of 10 teams competing full-time in IndyCar is likely to continue to grow from the 2018 season to the 2019 season. The question is, how many more new teams will join the series full-time next year?

It is looking more and more likely that McLaren, one of the 10 full-time teams that compete in Formula 1 with two-time champion Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso and second year driver Stoffel Vandoorne, will make the move to IndyCar as a full-time team next year.

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If they do make the move to IndyCar as a full-time team, they would likely do so through a partnership with Andretti Autosport, and Alonso would likely be their driver.

McLaren entered the 2017 Indianapolis 500 thanks to a partnership with Andretti Autosport, and Alonso drove the #29 Honda for them in that race.

Alonso even skipped the crown jewel of the Formula 1 schedule, the Monaco Grand Prix, to drive in the Indy 500, and he has stated that he wants to return to IndyCar for at least the Indy 500. Last year, he asked the question, “Why not?”, when it came to driving in IndyCar full-time.

Scuderia Corsa, the team that entered this year’s Indy 500 with Oriol Servia in the #64 Honda thanks to a partnership with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, have already committed to returning to the Indy 500 in 2019, and their goal is to compete full-time in the 2019 season.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing have not competed full-time in IndyCar since the 2012 season, but they have shown interest in returning full-time to the series. This year, they fielded two entries in the Indy 500 with Sage Karam and J.R. Hildebrand in the #24 Chevrolet and #66 Chevrolet, respectively. They had not fielded more than one entry in the Indy 500 since they fielded four entries in the 2011 Indy 500.

There have also been rumors about George Steinbrenner IV, the owner of Steinbrenner Racing who co-owns Andretti Steinbrenner Racing in Indy Lights, potentially forming a partnership with Andretti Autosport in IndyCar and bringing up his current Indy Lights driver Colton Herta, the son of Bryan Herta.

Bryan Herta, the owner of Bryan Herta Autosport already has a partnership with Andretti Autosport in IndyCar, as he has co-owned Andretti Herta Autosport since the 2016 season.

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How many teams will end up competing full-time in the 2019 IndyCar season? Will four or more new teams join the series full-time between the 2018 season and the 2019 season? If so, will any or all of the four teams discussed in this article be among those that join the series full-time? As the IndyCar silly season really heats up, we should learn a lot more about the 2019 team lineup and thus the driver lineup in the near future.