Australia’s Will Power faces a new IndyCar challenge in 2026 as he starts his journey with Andretti Global. He left Team Penske after 17 seasons at the end of 2025.
Along with a new team, he needs to learn a car with different strengths and weaknesses. He also switches from a Chevy engine to a Honda one.
Speaking to Pit Debrief and other media outlets during IndyCar media days, the 44-year-old was asked how important patience will be as he gets up to speed in his new team.
Power believes they will not know where they truly stand until St. Pete is done. In good news, he will get to test at Sebring and Phoenix in February, following on from a tyre test at the second venue mentioned in January.
Will Power on what he expects at the start of the 2026 IndyCar season
“Yeah, it’s really difficult to understand, like, are we missing anything? Are we good or bad?
“We won’t know that until we actually have our first race, I believe. But the end of the first race weekend you’ll start to see, as you always do, ‘okay, we need to work on this, this, this and this.’
“Until you’re getting into those pressure situations where things can go wrong or in a competitive situation where you kind of see where you really stack up, it’s really hard to tell, so you’re just putting everything in place to execute the best you can and then start working from there.
“But just doing the one test is a big deal. There’s a ton of things we’re doing already. That was just one test.
“I know in the next two tests we’ll start to be able to really push.”
Good chats with Colton and Bryan Herta
Following five seasons in the #26, with a best result of P2 in the IndyCar championship, Colton Herta has made the switch to Formula 2 for 2026.
Will Power explained how he has talked to both Colton and his equally famous racing father Bryan after his transition to Andretti and what they need to improve on.
The Australian is also hugely impressed by the natural talent of the 25-year-old.
“Yeah, it was a good conversation with Colton. Obviously he’s been in that car for a while and been around that team.
“Even his dad, I had good conversations with Bryan.
“They kind of know where improvements need to happen and so on because that’s sort of all you talk about, what do you think we need to do. But it was very handy speaking to him.
“Just watching his onboards, he’s very good. I can tell he really gets the most out of the car, even when it’s not completely balanced. You can see that he extracts — his actual natural ability is very strong.”
The areas where Andretti are very good and the ones where they need to improve
For a massive name like Andretti, a 14-year wait to try and win an IndyCar championship is far too long. Ryan Hunter-Reay was their last champion in 2012.
While Alex Rossi (2018) and Colton Herta (2024) have both finished second in the championship, inconsistent car performance has been a factor in the last few years.
Pit stops issues have also been costly, particularly with Colton Herta.
On a positive note, they have shown massive pace on street circuits in recent years, winning at St. Pete, Long Beach, Toronto and Detroit in this decade. Power believes they are in the benchmark in this area, in fact.
“The team has all the ingredients. Just being around the shop, they definitely have all the ingredients.
“They have enough people. They have some very smart people. The group on my car is incredibly experienced.
“Just looking from the outside before I got there, I was like, ‘Penske has the best pit stops.’ They train a lot and obviously have a good coach and so on, so I think that would be an area that I could see a lot of focus needing to be on, which it looks like it has been anyway in the off-season.
“Improvement on short ovals, road courses. I would say at Penske we needed to improve on road courses as well.
“I look at Andretti, I think their street course stuff is the best in the business. They’re sort of hot and cold on the road courses, and the short ovals, which is a good thing we get a two-day test [at Phoenix].”
Will Power hopes to use his invaluable experience to help Andretti get better on IndyCar short ovals in 2026
The two-time IndyCar champion talked about what he can do to help them improve on short ovals. It is a type of track Team Penske have dominated for plenty of seasons now, particularly with Josef Newgarden.
The 2018 Indy 500 winner is also confident Andretti will become the overall benchmark in the series soon.
“I have a ton of experience with short oval cars and developing them through the years with Penske to get to a point where we were very dominant, so to me, we’re in a very good position.
“It’s definitely going to be improved upon from last year. Like we’re already a good team. Everything they’re doing and have done, to me they’ll just be better, and it will just continually get better.
“I can just see the list, see the list of things that are getting done there. It’s only going to get better.
“That’s why I’ve said I believe the team will be the best team in the next three years.”
Confidence from Will Power that he can fight for the 2026 IndyCar championship
With two street tracks in the first three rounds in March to kick-start the 2026 season, Will Power is hopeful of a strong launch to his Andretti career. He has a staggering nine poles at St. Pete, the season-opener.
While he seems bullish about his championship prospects — and he has every right to considering his performance in a difficult campaign for Team Penske last year — the Australian is well aware that Alex Palou is going to take some stopping. Power is the only driver apart from the Spaniard to win an IndyCar title in the last five seasons.
“In the early part of the season, there are tracks that really suit that [Andretti] car. I expect other people would work on that in the off-season so they’d close the gap, but we’re going to close the gap in other areas, as well.
“So over the whole season, I feel like we should have a championship contending car. We should.
“I don’t see anyone standing out except Palou. You’re not even looking at the team standing out.
“When I look at the teams they’re all pretty even across the board for that front group. It was just one guy extracting the most out of his car, and it was Palou.
“If you took him out of the equation, it’s not like the other Ganassi guys are as dominant as he is.
“I think you almost need to be looking at the driving stuff more than the car stuff, honestly, like what is he doing as a driver to extract the most out of it.“
