Yesterday’s announcement of the new partnership between Andretti Autosport and Wayne Taylor Racing is huge for both IMSA and Indycar. While in 2023 we might not see any big changes, the next two years have a lot potential for some big moves.

Le Mans?

My first thought was that the new group will head to Le Mans in 2024 or 2025. Taylor’s son Ricky has driven at le mans for other teams, but now Taylor has a chance to bring his own car to France. It would be great to see the Andretti name return to Le Mans.

Resources

The groups no have increased depth in engineering and crew personnel. I can see a possibility of trading people back and forth for the sports car and Indycar programs as necessary.

I’m not sure how much each program can learn from Acura/Honda that translates from Sports cars to Indycars,but with Indycar moving to a hybrid system in 2024, perhaps there are things Andretti can learn from a year with the GTP car.

Expansion

Will Acura grant WTR/Andretti a second GTP car for 2024? If they do, will Meyer Shank still be an Acura program?

Ricky Taylor in Indycar?

The prospect of Ricky Taylor driving an Indycar really excites me. He is a talented driver. Driving for a team affiliated with Andretti gives him his best opportunity. I doubt if he would ever be a full time Indycar pilot, but I could see Taylor running a couple of road course races and possibly the Indianapolis 500.someday.

Indycar Exposure

I am not sure if there will be an increase in exposure for Indycar with this joint venture. Andretti joins Chip Ganassi, Mike Shank, Roger Penske, Bobby Rahal as Indycar team owners who will have entries in the GTP class in IMSA. With both series on NBC/Peacock, maybe the network can work opn some cross promotion. Some driver crossover would help.

For 2023 I believe all the Andretti indycar drivers have endurance commitments with other teams in various classes. Colton Herta with Rahal, Kyle Kirkwood with Vasser./Sullivan, and Romain Grosjean with Lamborghini. Devlin DeFrancesco has an LMP2 ride I believe.

I am excited to see how this partnership evolves. I see a potentially big super team on the horizon.