Ferrucci eager to be leader, Foyt aims for consistency

Despite his abundant talent, rookie Kyle Kirkwood had several accidents in the Foyt #14 this past season so that in 10 of the 17 races, he was classified 20^th or worse, the net result being the entry finished only 24^th in the championship.

While Larry Foyt and legendary A.J. Foyt are taking the risk of running another rookie, Lights graduate Benjamin Pedersen as replacement for Dalton Kellett in the #4 car, they have chosen Ferrucci – a driver with 43 IndyCar starts under his belt – to wheel the #14 in 2023.

“I think last year there were tracks we had speed on and there were tracks we struggled on,” said Foyt. “We're trying to work on those tracks that we struggled. I just think the good thing is Santino is going to get everything out of the car and get us some good finishes, get things rolling back the right direction. I really believe that.

“It's not that we think consistently we're going to be surprising people, but there's no reason that we can't have some really decent top 10s and even a little better.”

Foyt admitted it was a relief to have the Pedersen and Ferrucci deals sewn up as early as the first week of October.

“It's so just refreshing. Just even out in the shop today, everybody is like, ‘All right, we know what we're doing, working on it. This is great.’ That's really a good feeling because this winter, even though it feels long for the fans because we don't race for a while yet, it goes by so fast inside the race shop.

“We have a list of winter items we're trying to knock off right now. It's so much stuff. It is very good to have this all done. We know where we're headed now and we can get cracking on it.

Foyt admitted there was “nothing definitive yet” in terms of new recruits to the engineering or crew line-ups, but said the team would be stacking its test days in 2023 while further development is underway on the cars this winter.

“We're pushing back most of our on-track testing into next year,” he said, “the main reason is we've got some new damper stuff coming online that we're finishing up. We want to make sure that's all buttoned up, have some time in the shaker with it before we get it on track. I think we're going to push any of our on-track stuff until next year.”

Commercially, the team struggled in 2022, with ROKiT sponsorship and third driver Tatiana Calderon disappearing not long after midseason. Sexton Properties stepped up to the plate on the #14 car to supplement the Road To Indy scholarship money that Kirkwood had brought as 2021 Indy Lights champion but Foyt said that in ’23, both of the team’s cars will feature “a few different liveries … We won't have the one big sponsor this time.”

Performance-wise, meanwhile, Ferrucci said that he well knew what was expected from him on and off the track and that he took inspiration from how he worked with his first IndyCar teammate at Dale Coyne Racing, Sebastien Bourdais. The four-time champion had, said Ferrucci, “helped steer me out of a lot of wrongs and rabbit holes to really set me more in my ways for IndyCar. Yeah, the biggest thing from him was experience in how to lead a team. I carry that just about everywhere I go.

“I'm very happy to bring it to A.J. and Larry's team, see what we can do. It will be nice to have Benjamin as well, a young, fast rookie. Unfortunately I don't think I'm much older than him. It will be nice to have someone like that who wants to continue to be pushed.

“The car has shown speed this year, without a doubt. It's had its moments of brilliance. It's about how to make it consistent. The car also didn't finish a lot of races because he had a rookie in the car. Bringing the team back to consistency.

“Are we going to show up in St. Pete and light the world on fire? Absolutely not. Are we going to start with realistic goals, put the car in the top 10, seeing how consistent we can be? Yeah, without a doubt. It's going to be a new team for me. It's going to be completely reorganized by the time we start our winter prep … It's one of those things where we're going to get the most out of this if we stay realistic and we stay consistent.

“Talking to Larry about it, I think we can bring in a couple of good engineers. Me being based in Texas, I can spend a lot of time with the team, make sure our pitstops are good, building the cars to top quality. Like I said, all we got to do is go out there and perform and see what it gives us, go from there.”

A reflective Ferrucci also admitted that there were times in the last two years of part-time IndyCar racing and part-time NASCAR racing, when he wondered if there was a way back to open-wheel on a full-time basis.

“The last few years, including this year, everything has been on merit for me,” he said. “I had sponsorship my first year I came into IndyCar, a little bit in the second year. After that it's just been really tough with COVID for myself personally. That's kind of why we switched to NASCAR a little bit, because I had to find some partners that preferred that. Also I wanted to try it. There's a reason why you saw me over there.

“For me, being as young as I am, having these part-time rides, subbing for the kids that do get injured unfortunately, is really the only thing that's kept me going.

“We have four top 10s in four races at the 500, which has helped me there. I know that race in particular I will always kind of have a shot. But as far as a full season, yeah, it's definitely hit or miss. Being able to sub last minute, have good results, show a lot of pace, I think has definitely kind of opened the eyes of everybody a little bit to, yeah, I can just get in and wheel the car to the best of my ability.

“To come back full-time and to be driving for Larry, it's an honor. It's so tough for drivers in my position right now that are trying to make it, or else we're going to flip burgers. I'm just very grateful for the opportunity.

I'm ready to work as hard as I've ever worked to show that we can do this as a team and this was the right decision for everybody involved, all the partners that are coming back in, that want to be a part of this deal.”

Ferrucci, the 2019 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, has now racked up four Top 10 finishes at on Memorial Day Weekend, and says he’s “without a doubt” at the stage of being able to contribute heavily to a team’s setup work for Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I have my own books from driving from different teams, at different tracks,” he said. “I'm at the point now to where I know exactly what I'm looking for out of the car for myself. I know how to fix a multitude of problems within the setup of the car.

“I don't know Benjamin at all. I don't know his driving style. But I'm sure that having someone of my knowledge… Now, I'm not Sebastien Bourdais by any means, trust me, but having him there for that one year to just try to sort through things as a rookie was such a huge leap for me.

“Yeah, I definitely think I'll be great in the leadership role helping him. I think together, us working together as a team, is going to be huge. So I think we'll be able to get a lot done.”