Field set for IndyCar season-opener

A 24-car field will take to the streets of St Petersburg for this weekend’s IndyCar season-opener, including Will Power with a new strategist in Roger Penske.

The 22 full-time entries will be bolstered by the addition of Juncos Racing’s Rene Binder and Michael Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey, both of whom will run partial campaigns in 2018.

Power will have legendary team owner Penske calling his strategy after Helio Castroneves’ move to Team Penske’s new IMSA program.

‘The Captain’ will be his third strategist in as many years, with Jon ‘Myron’ Bouslog having replaced Tim Cindric when the team president moved to Josef Newgarden’s car at the start of 2017.

Power will, however, continue to be engineered by David Faustino.

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“You get used to your guy, right?” the Queenslander told IndyCar.com.

“There’s always a bit of that. I always have Dave on the stand, but I’ll have to get used to how Roger says things and such.

“But that’s just normal. He’s pretty good on the radio. He gives you the information you need.”

The 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series also marks the introduction of the new universal aerokit, with its streamlined design producing around 30 percent less downforce than the manufacturers’ own versions which had been used since 2015.

“When you’re following, you hardly feel any turbulence,” said Power of the aerokit.

“There’s no question that from that perspective, it will be a lot better.

“It will be a year of really being on top of it. It won’t be fine-tuning, honestly. At a lot of these tracks, we’ll be trying to find what works and going with it.”

CLICK HERE for more from US motorsport journalist Marshall Pruett on the new aerokit.

The Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg begins with practice on Friday (local time), followed by qualifying on Saturday and the 110-lap race on Sunday.

Entry list: St Petersburg

Num	Driver	Nat	Engine	Team
1	Josef Newgarden	USA	Chevrolet	Team Penske
4	Matheus ‘Matt’ Leist (R)	BRA	Chevrolet	AJ Foyt Racing
5	James Hinchcliffe	CAN	Honda	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
6	Robert Wickens (R)	CAN	Honda	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
9	Scott Dixon	NZL	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	Ed Jones	GBR	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	Will Power	AUS	Chevrolet	Team Penske
14	Tony Kanaan	BRA	Chevrolet	AJ Foyt Racing
15	Graham Rahal	USA	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
18	Sebastien Bourdais	FRA	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Vasser-Sullivan
19	Zachary Claman DeMelo (R)	CAN	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
20	Jordan King (R)	GBR	Chevrolet	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	Spencer Pigot	USA	Chevrolet	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	Simon Pagenaud	FRA	Chevrolet	Team Penske
23	Charlie Kimball	USA	Chevrolet	Carlin
26	Zach Veach (R)	USA	Honda	Andretti Autosport
27	Alexander Rossi	USA	Honda	Andretti Autosport
28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	USA	Honda	Andretti Autosport
30	Takuma Sato	JPN	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
32	Rene Binder (R)	AUT	Chevrolet	Juncos Racing
59	Max Chilton	GBR	Chevrolet	Carlin
60	Jack Harvey (R)	GBR	Honda	Michael Shank Racing w/ Schmidt Peterson
88	Gabby Chaves	COL	Chevrolet	Harding Racing
98	Marco Andretti	USA	Honda	Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian