Santino Ferrucci doubles down on IndyCar championship chances with AJ Foyt Racing

IndyCar driver Santino Ferrucci was recently featured on the Trackside podcast’s February 19 episode, where he detailed his chances of having a shot at the 2025 IndyCar championship. The American will continue to race for A.J. Foyt Racing for the upcoming IndyCar season and explained the progress made by the team over the winter break.

The 2025 IndyCar season is on the horizon with the first race at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix on March 2. Amid this, Ferrucci explained the pathway to winning a championship, and what it would take from the team in terms of a championship contention.

The host of the podcast mentioned how he was taken aback by Ferrucci’s “brashness” and how the American managed to finish 9th in the 2024 IndyCar championship. He then questioned the A.J. Foyt Racing driver whether he would be a championship contender for the 2025 season. Santino replied:

“There's a lot that goes into it.We'll see how we unroll at St. Pete. I definitely think we can take a jump from last year. Just how far that jump is, I don't know.

“I don't I wouldn't be surprised if you see us fighting for race wins consistently. And one of the things to win a championship is the lowest show in the last few years. You got to finish races.I think that that's something that we've already got something you can't teach. So I think that's what would give us that contention style of vibes over here,” added Santino Ferrucci.

The P9 finish in the IndyCar championship last year was Santino Ferrucci's best in the open-wheel racing series since he made his debut in the 2018 season. He has been in and out of a full-time role in IndyCar, driving as a part-timer for DCR from 2018 to 2019. He then joined the team as a full-timer for 2020.

For the next couple of years, Ferrucci again participated as a part-timer for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, and Juncos Hollinger Racing before joining A.J. Foyt Racing as a full-timer in 2023.

Santino Ferrucci details a strong 2024 ending as building block for the 2025 IndyCar season

Santino Ferrucci had a slow start to the 2024 IndyCar season with three finishes outside the Top 20 (including one DNF) in the first five races. However, the American had a strong end to the season, finishing in the Top 10 in the last four races, including P4 finishes at the two races in Milwaukee.

Speaking about how the strong finish will help the team in the upcoming season, Ferrucci said, via IndyCar:

“Toward the end of (last season) we definitely picked up the pole, two top-five (finishes), had a really strong run in Nashville -- I think we qualified in the top five if it wasn't for the engine penalty. All of that is just building on the success that we had throughout the year, building setups, building books (of information).

“You look at where we would have finished in oval points and then you look at how we did at the end of the year for the last leg of the season. I wasn't messing around when I said I think we can run for a championship,” he added

AUTO: JUN 22 NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey - Source: Getty

Michael Cannon, A.J. Foyt Racing’s former Technical Director, left the team after the 2024 campaign. However, the team has a technical alliance with Team Penske, which will help fill the gap left by Cannon.