Taking a deep dive into the past, present and future
Take us back to 2016 and to the beginning of your relationship with PREMA. How did you meet the team? How did it all happen?
"The first time I met a person from the team, specifically, Rene, I was on a flight from Macau to Abu Dhabi. It was clear very quickly that it was a family-orientated team. He was very welcoming. I got to experience PREMA's GP2 weekend there, it was turning into FIA Formula 2 and there was a collective test afterward. The team was also very welcoming, especially considering I wasn't racing there yet. Then, we signed together for 2017 and we went into winter testing. I had Zhou, Guenther, and Schumacher as teammates and we had a very good car. It was a positive season. We had the pace, and it was a valuable learning experience. After that, we went close to being back maybe with F2 one year, but it never quite happened."
What is the fondest memory of your time at PREMA?
"The media days were very fun. The first win in the opening race of the season at Silverstone, and the Pau Grand Prix. The testing with Angelo who was complaining with me for constantly damaging the car on the kerbs in Imola. Monza, when we had Felix Rosenqvist come as a driver coach. All bits like that. Racing is one thing, but off the track, PREMA is one of the teams I had the most fun with."
How did competing for PREMA help you to evolve as a driver and person?
"It was a year full of potential. We had a lot of speed, but we maybe didn't utilize it in the right way for the championship. I came out of that with a lot of lessons learned, which were quite important for the rest of my career. Looking at that, it was about getting everything out of myself from the performance side, pushing me, and building me and all the other drivers in the right way. The old F3 car was amazing to learn and develop your skills. The way it was, it was one of the closest cars to INDYCAR."
How did your comeback for INDYCAR come about?
"After I went to the US, I was randomly asked about how it was going, now I know why (laughs). I heard about this potential opportunity at the end of last year, in 2023, when things started moving properly in the US. It was going to be interesting, even though I didn't really understand how it was going to take shape. From there, I started to see how things were developing, and I got a chance to sit down with Piers. I was very impressed, and at that point, it was quite easy to make a decision and jump over back to the US, to start what is going to be an amazing journey. It's a pleasure to be back!"
Every team has its language, what makes the PREMA language special?
"It's Italian. Pasta, Pizza (laughs). But in all seriousness, it's hard, honest, funny, fair. This is one of the most honest teams I've seen. What you see is what you get."
This is a completely new project, made from scratch. What attracted you the most from it?
"Whatever PREMA touches, it's done properly, and that's visible in every series the team competes in, so I know that it wasn't taken lightly to come here. Everything is done properly from the personnel side to the performance and even the looks of everything. I know the team has grown quite a lot, there's a new headquarter in Italy that was expanded and is quite impressive. I always agreed with what my friend Marcus Armstrong said, that if PREMA came to the US they would do a great job. I think it's amazing to see this project come to life. What a team."
What are the qualities a driver needs to help the team build itself from the ground up?
"This is going to be a different project, a newer project, in the sense that it will be the first time in years for a team to start from scratch, without acquiring another operation or parts of it. That's something I have never experienced, but I worked on building something from small into big in the past. There are a lot of unknowns and a lot of working with what you have. You have to deduct things from what didn't work best, but at the same time, you have to optimize what you've got. Sometimes there won't be all the answers, and you just have to make it work. But at the end of the day, I think we have the right people and the right mentality. Hopefully, from the drivers' side, there won't be much need to get involved. Focus on yourself, get the people around you happy and ready, and be fast!"
What is INDYCAR about, what are the challenges, and what can we look forward to?
"You cannot underestimate INDYCAR. It's an incredibly competitive series, with a lot of incredibly competitive drivers. INDYCAR is about versatility, from the team, from the driver, across so many different circuits. The teams all have their own specialties, whether it's ovals, road courses, or street circuits. That's what makes it really difficult to stand out across the board. There are 27 very competitive cars, and for the Indy 500, we even get 33 or 34. Everyone has the right to be there and does an amazing job. Then, you get the versatility of the tracks, all the ovals are completely different, and street courses are very tough to get right. The bumpiest European tracks, like Monaco or Baku, are still smoother than most tracks out here except for the ovals, and even Iowa is pretty bumpy. The team will need to make adjustments to the European mentality when it comes to them."
How is life in the US, racing in INDYCAR?
"It's quick turnarounds, every weekend. It's not easy for crews and drivers. Once you are done with the weekend, it's straight to the next one. You probably look at the global picture only at the end of the year for the next. But it's lovely to be in the US. It's exciting, it's good travelling, we get to some really cool places, and with the new TV deal, I think INDYCAR is going to get some good coverage. There will be a lot to explore and achieve, and bringing the European side to it could hopefully make some waves."
What will be the most crucial aspects for 2025?
"Speed will be crucial in terms of how quickly we can hit the ground running. Sometimes you can be lucky because what you have is good straight away and works well. It's rare, but it can happen, and if it doesn't, we will need to adapt very quickly to come to the first race. The recovery mindset is very important. Some things might take time, but it's just the unknowns that might bring some uncertainty. I think the Team will adapt really well in a lot of ways. We will have some good people who will know what to do. We will have to adapt quickly to the hybrid system, which is going to be new for all of us, while some of the other teams had a lot of testing with it. For the rest, it's a racecar, as our friend Felix Rosenqvist says, it's a car, with four wheels."
What are your realistic expectations?
"There are some high expectations, and I definitely think that some of them are achievable. On any of those weekends, if you are competitive, you can get an amazing result. You have to be there on strategy, be doing the right things, and be in the window, and in INDYCAR those things can happen. I don't doubt we can put ourselves in some good positions. It's obviously not going to be easy. In the road courses, we have got to be aiming for top-5s. Same with the streeìt courses but again, that's going to require a bit of adaptation. The ovals, it's going to be one step at a time. We'll see. The first one is going to be the 500, and again you can hit the ground running, and do well in testing, but on the race weekend it can heat up a lot and you can fall out of the window. It's not that simple. Still, we have a lot of good people, and all the right resources, there's no reason we cannot be fighting at the top and show these guys what we do."
What is the secret recipe of the PREMA way, and how will that be applicable to INDYCAR?
"The secret is something I learned over time. A lot of drivers want to know that. The team has a very good car normally, the package is always in a good window, and there is a good balance with every single chassis in every series. That's number 1. Number 2, it's the treatment of people, there's a good vibe, in and away from the track. That normally gets the most out of the people and keeps attracting more good people. As painful as it could be for other drivers who don't get the opportunity to experience that, it's great when you do. And in the end, you eventually learn that, as Po says in Kung Fu Panda, there was no secret ingredient."