Quality Over Quantity: The Harsh Future Facing IndyCar’s Midfield
Ed Carpenter Racing was the first to go public in its search for funding. This must have been tough, but it allowed them to get ahead of a narrative that is easy to tell with hindsight.
Investors are pattern-recognition machines. Seeing three “please fund us” headlines in less than a year would reframe the issue as systemic fragility in IndyCar’s midfield.
Who would want to invest in that?
From Game to Operating System: Why the Cosworth–iRacing Partnership Could Redefine Motorsport by 2030
On August 28, 2025, iRacing announced a landmark partnership with Cosworth, the legendary engineering firm producing everything from engines to steering wheels to, pertinently for this announcement, software.
At first glance, this might sound like a “nice upgrade” for sim racers who want to feel a little closer to the action: Cosworth’s Pi Toolbox, highly regarded in professional race telemetry, will be made available to all iRacing users.
Cosworth is no stranger to the sim racing space, having already released consumer versions of some of their highly recognizable, real-life steering wheels.
But this news is far bigger than just new features for a PC sim.
Who Cares If the F1 Movie Is Inaccurate? It’s “Drive To Survive” At 18,000 RPM.
F1 is absolutely fantastic, in fact I’m rewatching it as I’m putting this article together.
Yes, you’ll spot the cracks if you’re a die-hard fan: Brands Hatch pretending to be somewhere else, the APXGP car actually a dressed-up F2 chassis (the steering wheel gives it away), and a 1990s driver improbably getting another shot at the grid.
Who cares?
Accuracy isn’t the point.
IndyCar, Fox, Penske, Should Pay for Alex Palou’s Rumored Red Bull Formula 1 Seat
I usually stick to commenting on confirmed news stories rather than rumors, but I’ll make an exception for the reports coming out of the motorsport world today, August 25th 2025.
The story itself is exceptional, but what I find more compelling is that it sits right at the heart of a dynamic that I’ve written about often: the lackluster performance of IndyCar relative to the juggernaut that F1 has become.
Red Bull Racing’s reported interest in Alex Palou, IndyCar’s four-time champion could be seen as zero-sum, a potential loss for the the defection of IndyCar’s brightest star to Formula 1, thus weakening the former even further in favor of the latter.
The contract situation is messy: Palou is locked into Ganassi through 2026 with out clauses, McLaren’s lawsuit over a broken deal is still in play, and generally the financial hurdles to release him would be significant.
But let’s step back and think big, on a scale as big and crazy as the possibility of Max Verstappen and Alex Palou would be.
Instead of resisting the move, IndyCar should embrace it.