In a special episode previewing the season commencing in St Petersburg this weekend, The Race IndyCar Podcast is joined by an ace rookie in a race-winning seat and a series champion turned Indy 500 winner.

Simon Pagenaud has a big year ahead with 2021 Indy 500 winners Meyer Shank who were brilliant on road courses last year but struggled with tyre wear.

The engineering-minded Pagenaud gives a fascinating insight into the ground-up evaluation the team went through in the off-season, his leadership role and some of the trials and tribulations of refining a current IndyCar team into a regular contender without much testing in the off-season.

Also joining the episode is Marcus Armstrong, the F2 ace who will drive the road and street courses for Chip Ganassi Racing this year. The last rookie at Ganassi racing at St Pete qualified in the top three, and Armstrong certainly has the ability to ruffle some feathers this season.

As a Kiwi, he discusses watching Scott Dixon growing up to being his team-mate, his transition in moving to the States, and how his style matches up against Alex Palou and the other Ganassi drivers after a pre-season test where he excelled. 

Co-host JR Hildebrand also weighs in to discuss what he’s expecting in terms of big storylines at St Pete, mainly can Honda fightback against the drivability upgrade Chevrolet brought and dominated with last year, alongside Team Penske.

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