Romain Grosjean, Long Beach, 2021

Grosjean moves to Andretti for second season in IndyCar

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Romain Grosjean will move to Andretti for his second season in IndyCar next year, the team has announced.

He will leave the Coyne/Rick Ware team which he made his debut in the series with this year.

Andretti confirmed Grosjean will take over the number 28 car which Ryan Hunter-Reay will make his final start in this weekend.

The team has not announced whether Grosjean will contest every round of next year’s championship. He did not take part in the first three races on IndyCar’s superspeedway ovals this year – the double-header at Texas Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. However he made his oval debut on the lower-speed Gateway circuit in August.

Next year’s IndyCar calendar features five races on ovals: One each at Texas and Indianapolis, plus a return to Gateway and a double-header at Iowa, another short oval.

Grosjean said it was a “big honour” to join the larger Andretti squad, where he will partner Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi and a fourth driver to be confirmed.

“Anyone in the motorsport world knows the name Andretti,” he said. “I’m super happy and proud to be racing with the team.”

“I would like also to thank Dale Coyne Racing for giving me the opportunity to join IndyCar,” Grosjean added. “I’ve enjoyed the racing so much and it’s given me the change today to be racing with one of the most competitive and best teams in the world.”

Team CEO and chairman Michael Andretti said Grosjean “already had an impressive resume before coming to IndyCar and watching what he’s been able to do in his rookie season here has been exciting to say the least.

“His vast motorsport experience will be beneficial to the team alongside our already strong 2022 driver line-up.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Grosjean moves to Andretti for second season in IndyCar”

  1. This is unexpected. I did not expect this.

  2. I will try to watch more races but won’t be getting peacock streaming to do it.

    1. I actually purchased it and I was still unable to watch races so I just don’t know what is going on. It was easy with the nbc subscription 2 years ago

    2. RandomMallard (@)
      24th September 2021, 22:22

      @jimfromus Well I believe you may be in luck. I believe I read that all except 1 or 2 races on the calendar next year will be shown on main NBC or NBC Sports channels, with only a couple being Peacock exclusives.

  3. Can someone inform me whether this is a move to a better team? Seems not as clear cut as for F1 where the pecking order is fairly well established.

    1. It’s a move to a bigger team yes. They are one of the big 3 or 4 in Indycar. It’s like getting a Merc, rRedBull or Ferrari drive in F1 pretty much. He will have the best cars with lots of talent around him. They don’t talk about it but he might be bringing his engineer with him to AA. He will be running. For the championship with that ride

    2. Yup, Andretti is a big budget team. And with three team mates you get a lot more data sharing which is rather important for Indycar, where setup is so crucial. The bigger teams also have those extra amenities that help keep a driver focused on his job.

      After watching Romain’s form this year (I live in the USA and have cable so I get to see all the races) there’s no doubt that he’s really motivated and had been very comfortable right from the start in an Indycar. His performance at the oval at Gateway was very impressive, for his first oval race he wasn’t afraid to mix it up at all. And he was brilliant at Laguna Seca, making daring passes. And probably something that hasn’t been noticed much, he has been pretty careful to not do anything dumb (at least not that I remember) and to keep his car in the race, even when he’s had bad luck with caution flags or pit stops. He’s been a real joy to watch this season.

      1. It helps that the Dellara has turned out to be a bit of a tank. He’s better about not running into things, but when he does the car doesn’t break as often.

  4. I like the hat. I probably would have gone with “the mostly rare done”.

  5. I’m very curious to see how he will match up against Colton Herta.

  6. The news from Michael Andretti is that this is a 2 year contract.

  7. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    24th September 2021, 21:42

    Unexpected, but not undeserved. Grosjean has been really good to watch this season

  8. Totally earned it. It will be very interesting to see the team dynamics, especially with Herta.

  9. Happy to see Grosjean doing well.

  10. I’ve really enjoyed watching Grosjean this year, after years of “he’s quick but … the car”, I’ve enjoyed watch him enjoy himself, get some great and unexpected results, makes me really think, that F1 really wastes drives, and for some (many) there may be a better life elsewhere

  11. I expected him to move, they have talked all season about him moving to a big team. I would rate Andretti Racing as the number two team. Penske has had a less than stellar season which is unusual for them. Colton Herta doesn’t seem to be intimidated by anyone or anything so Romain being on the team will just be more motivation for him. Andretti will have to set firm rules with them both, don’t take out your teammates! I’ve always felt that Romains talents could be better exploited in Indy. The cars are heavier, tougher to damage and not as aero dependent as F1. Romain has made the most of his opportunities here and it’s paid off. So I can’t wait for next year already.

  12. So that’s ovals to take part in next year…

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