Santino Ferrucci feels confident about the upcoming 2026 IndyCar season in spite of the past year turning out to be much below expectations at AJ Foyt.
After a roaring 2024 ended in the top 10 and the signing of the technical alliance with Penske, Ferrucci definitely had hoped for a similar performance in the season gone by. On the other hand, the American driver managed to achieve his best finish in Detroit in P2, scoring another podium at Road America.
Not the year he was expecting
Ferrucci went over his year during a press conference for the announcement of the new partnership Hendricks Commercial Properties. The AJ Foyt driver admitted to Pit Debrief and other media outlets that the process of adapting to interacting with the team that won the 2024 Indy 500 has taken a bit more time than expected.
“Part of the learning curve this coming season, we had a slight difference in dampers and book build from Penske. The alliance, it’s really, really good for us. All of my references and everything we built with Adam and James the previous year had shifted quite a bit. We kind of struggled to figure out how to adjust to that shift accordingly. It took us longer than we anticipated.
“We did have some races where we were really quick, we nailed it. But having to understand what you’re doing with the car, it’s not always easy. Some of the reads I was getting were a little bit skewed.”
Ferrucci also recounted how his at time teammate David Malukas, now at Penske, lived his season with the team, explaining his strengths and disadvantages. The Lithuanian-American earned his first podium with AJ Foyt in the 2025 Indy 500 in second place.
“Dave and I both had different ways of being competitive. He struggled a lot less in qualifying than I did, but in the racing I was a lot happier with the cars at times. We were averaging 15-plus positions passing a race, which is not something we want to be doing.”
The best is yet to come for Ferrucci
“I feel good about what we’ve learned, how we’ve adjusted some cars. I’m excited to go to some new tracks this season, like Arlington and Phoenix. It’s always a good challenge for drivers when just a very small part of the grid has raced there. I feel good about a lot of things.
“I feel really good coming back to Indy this year. We struggled a lot this past 500 with some weird things going on. Our car was just so competitive. To be carrying that same philosophy into the ’26 500, I feel like we’re going to be a very strong team. I think everything’s going to hopefully go our way.”
Ferrucci will undertake his fourth season with AJ Foyt in the upcoming 2026 IndyCar championship, with the news of him remaining behind the wheel of cars no.14 confirmed pretty early in the season. He is pleased about the stability, which definitely allows him to have less worries on his mind.
“Yeah, it’s been really good, honestly. I really thank Larry for trusting me to drive the 14 car year after year. This past season we’ve had a lot of ups and a lot of downs. I’ve made probably a couple more mistakes than I’m used to. To continue building on my book with the engineers, the team’s gone through some changes as well.”
Continuity will work in his favour
Ferrucci added that along with the technical changes the past year, personnel changes took place, as his mechanic team was renewed over the span of the year.
“ Larry has moved the entire team up to Indianapolis this past year, so it’s a completely new crew of mechanics. Switched engineers midway through the season in ’25. This is the first real season of stability, continuity with everything inside the team. I’m really looking forward to that.
“I think a lot of the races that we had good success at we can build on. The races I’ve made some mistakes, things that we learned with the car, the Penske alliance, we know we can definitely make better.
“I really look forward to what we can do this season,” he summed up, glad for a new chance to return next year.
One of Ferrucci’s goals for the 2026 IndyCar season will definitely be to return on the podium of the 500, as well as to try and be in the championship contention, or at least return in the drivers’top ten.
However, he also reckons that the elusive lengthy oval race might not just come down to his own talent and preparation, highlighting the importance of the work of the entire team.
“Yeah, obviously you don’t change mentally how I prepare for the race. I kind of do the same thing every year to prepare to win there. We finished fifth this year. We had a third in 2023. Some of it’s just kind of coming down to a little bit of luck and fewer mistakes, just little things.”
How important is the Indy 500 to him?
“2023 was completely out of our hands. This past year our last pit stop, just the redhead had gotten stuck. We had a couple other things going on that day. That’s just due to the weather was pretty crazy.
“Little things that make a bit of a difference there. You lose some time in a pit stop, you’re missing a second at two and a half football fields. Little things at the end that make that race so difficult to win.”
In such an event, anything, any small detail can make it or break it, and for this reason it will be pivotal both for him and for everyone at AJ Foyt to be at the top of their game.
“Just trying to perfect and work with the team, make sure that we build the cars correctly, make sure we’ve done all the little details, the little bolts, cross our Ts, dot our Is, all of our pit stops are perfect, I can hit my marks perfect every time. Everything inside the car that I do is routine. Just repetition. We just keep working towards that.”
Ferrucci ended it on a positive and hopeful note, stressing how much work and effort he is willing to put in towards his goal of having a stronger season in 2026 IndyCar after a tough 2025.
“Hopefully this year is going to be our year. I feel really good about it. I know the team’s working really hard, harder than ever. Working with my chief mechanic Steve, seeing the process when I was back up at the shop. I’ll be back at the shop next month for multiple days, going through everything with them, making sure if we need to do anything more, change anything slightly, that we do it correctly, make everything as perfect as perfect can be.”
