IndyCar: Santino Ferrucci poised to break out in year two?

By Asher Fair | Jan 27, 2020

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 20: Santino Ferrucci #19 of United States and Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda sits in his car during practice for the NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 20, 2019 in Monterey, California. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Sophomore slumps can hit hard in any sport, but for Santino Ferrucci, he is poised to break out in his second season of IndyCar competition.

Five rookies were slated to compete in the 2019 IndyCar season, and none of them were surrounded by less hype than Dale Coyne Racing’s Santino Ferrucci.

Patricio O’Ward, who ended up losing his full-time ride before the season began anyway, was the 2018 Indy Lights champion. Colton Herta finished runner-up to O’Ward in what was basically a two-driver domination. Marcus Ericsson had just made the switch to IndyCar from Formula 1 after spending several years overseas.

Felix Rosenqvist had previous success in pretty much everything he had driven, including Formula E, Super Formula, Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, Formula 3 and even Indy Lights as a part-time driver back in 2016.

But Ferrucci?

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He had a controversy-filled Formula 2 stint and no top 10 finishes in four previous IndyCar starts in 2018.

He was destined for failure amid heavy criticism and disdain toward the fact that he was even given a shot to compete at the highest level of American open-wheel racing.

Yet the 21-year-old Woodbury, Connecticut native impressed in his rookie season, and his 13th place finish in the championship standings certainly does not do it justice, especially not compared to the sixth and seventh place finishes of Rosenqvist and Herta.

In reality, we’ve known since last August that Ferrucci would be back with Dale Coyne’s organization for the 2020 season. He said that he had a deal in place to return but claimed that he was leaving his other options open, although those other options quickly disappeared as other drivers landed those opportunities.

But it was only recently confirmed by the team that Ferrucci is, in fact, slated to be back for a second season with the team.

Now, however, he is slated to be the team veteran. The team unexpectedly released four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais just two months after the 2019 season ended, and they confirmed less than a month later that rookie Alex Palou is set to be their new driver through a partnership with Team Goh.

As a result, yes, Ferrucci is slated to return, but he is set to do so in the team’s established top team behind the wheel of the #18 Honda, not the #19 Honda he drove last year, with their established partnership through Vasser-Sullivan, which came on board Bourdais’s #18 Honda ahead of the 2018 season when Bourdais was the team’s lone full-time driver.

So what is he capable of doing in his second year?

The sky is the limit for Ferrucci.

Ferrucci, unlike the other three rookies, did fail to finish on the podium last year. But there were two races that he was in position to win before untimely caution flag periods sank his ship. Interestingly, both times, his chances to win went out the window with shunts caused by none other than his teammate Bourdais.

On the streets of Belle Isle, it was Bourdais running into the #21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet of Spencer Pigot, bringing out the caution flag that ultimately doomed Ferrucci’s chance to win and relegated him to a 10th place finish.

At World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Bourdais spun out just after a pit stop, and three drivers, ultimately the top three finishers, ended up utilizing the ensuing caution flag period to keep the win away from Ferrucci, who was forced to settle for fourth place after leading a race-high 97 (of 248) laps prior to this sequence of events.

There will naturally be circumstances that cannot be avoided in every race, for better or for worse for whoever happens to be at a certain place at a certain time. But these two instances are particularly notable now that Bourdais is out and Ferrucci is set to back up an impressive rookie campaign.

Aside of that success on Belle Isle, Ferrucci recorded only two top 10 finishes in the other 11 road and street course races, and he didn’t finish higher than ninth. He will undoubtedly need to make a step forward, as he now has just three top 10 finishes in 16 starts in road and street course races.

His success on the ovals, however, was another story, and he has already solidified himself as arguably the best oval driver in the series.

Dale Coyne Racing have competed in American open-wheel racing since 1984, and they entered the 2019 season with just four top four finishes in oval races — ever.

But Ferrucci himself recorded three fourth place finishes in a four-race span in 2019. He placed seventh at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to earn Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors before finishing in fourth at Texas Motor Speedway, 12th at Iowa Speedway and fourth at both Pocono Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

He finished in fourth place in the oval championship standings, trailing only the three drivers who finished in the top three in the overall standings (Team Penske teammates Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud and Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi).

On the 2020 schedule, Pocono Raceway was replaced by Richmond Raceway, which most closely resembles Iowa Speedway of the four active oval tracks.

But for Ferrucci, Iowa Speedway was actually one of his strongest tracks, despite his oval-low 12th place result; the caution flags simply didn’t fall his way. On multiple restarts, he passed a handful of cars at once in the matter of a turn or two. At Richmond Raceway, that kind of prowess will be crucial.

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What can Santino Ferrucci accomplish in his sophomore IndyCar season? It’s all setting up to be a breakout year for him if he can piece it all together, and with a few fixes here and there, that could very well result in him visiting victory lane for the first time in his young career — perhaps on multiple occasions.

The 2020 season is scheduled to get underway in just over a month and a half with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which is slated to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 15.