The race is on, and Roman Grojean, remember him, has made a big impact on IndyCar this year,

so much so that he signed for the Powerhouse Andretti Autosport team for 2022. In this special

crossover episode between the Race F1 podcast and the Race IndyCar podcast,

we'll discuss Grojean's prospects for next year now that his deal is been announced,

and how he's adapted so well to racing stateside.

I'm Ed Straw, and joining us to answer all your Roman Grosjean questions is Jack Bennion.

Well, I feel I'm a poor substitute for regular IndyCar podcast co-host J.R. Hilder Pran, and can only apologise to those who are listening in the IndyCar feed for that. J.R. would be here, but unfortunately he's travelling right now, so it just wasn't possible timing-wise. But I am very pleased to be joined by the other half of the race IndyCar podcast dynamic duo Jack Benyon. How much have you enjoyed following Grojean's progress this year? Yeah, well, just to start, you've picked the wrong podcast co-host have on, haven't you? Because I think most people tune in for JR's insight as opposed to mine on the IndyCar podcast. But yeah, it's definitely worth checking out. We have good fun on that podcast and a lot of cool insight into IndyCar. It's been great to watch Grojan's progress through the season. And to be honest, JR's been the perfect kind of teammate for that, giving some insight from kind of what it's like to drive these in these current spec Indy cars and give us some real proper insight into the driving element of what Roman's been, you know, actually doing this year with, with Dale Coyle and racing. So yeah, It's been interesting to see is progress. It's definitely taken to things quickly, which I'm sure we're going to get into shortly. And now the big move to Andretti. Yeah, I can definitely endorse the Race IndyCar podcast for those listening in the F1 feed. J.R. Hildebrandt does offer excellent insight. And Jack occasionally comes in with some good points as well. As you're about to find out, as we delve into Grojean. So let's get straight into the details of his move first. How much interest was there in Grojean's services for next year? And just how big a deal is it for him to be picked up by Andretti Autosports? Take the place of Ryan Hunter Ray, who after all, he's had disappointing form in recent years, but he is an IndyCar champion and won the Indy 500 back in 2012.

Well, to start with the first part, I guess the sort of decision always came down to

Dale Coim racing to stay there or to move to Andretti Autosport.

That became quite clear early in the kind of silly season exchanges.

There was a couple of rumours about Aaron McLaren SP may be interested, but I'm not sure there was actually any serious interest from both parties there. I think this decision was always going to come down to these two teams. Andretti, obviously, a lot to benefit by, you know, kind of shaking things up for next season. We'll get into their kind of, you know, their position in IndyCar at the moment and their sort of recent results a bit later in the podcast. But Ryan Hunter-A, obviously, a former champion and an Indy-500 winner. So someone that's been with the team for 10 years, they'll be very sad to see him go. I know a lot of the team members are very upset to see him sort of leave him, but, you know, all things must come to an end at some point. And I think this is the right

time now for Ryan Hunter to go and seek out a new challenge as much for him as it is for Andretti

to get a new driver in and kind of, you know, mix things up there. But I think, I think that's the

resounding sort of thing that I take away from this is this is a time of change for Andretti and a time where

shaking things up is something that's necessary to claw back some ground to the big teams

in Indycar at the moment because traditionally Indycar has been three big teams. You've got Chip

Gannasi racing, Team Penske and Andretti also sport. But what we've seen over the past two seasons

since the introduction of the aeroscreen is Aaron McLaren SP with that huge amount of resource from McLaren on the F1 side and on the Indycar side coming in and boosting their results. We've got Pato Award fighting for the championship this weekend with Alex Palos, Chip Canassie racing car. And then we've also got Ray Hall, Letterman, Lannigan, proven that they can sort of consistently push their way to the front as well and create this kind of a big five, as opposed to a big three in Indycar at the moment. So Andretti, you know, really has to work hard to maintain its spot in this top five, which is something that sounds quite unusual to say, maybe for the people who kind of watch Indycar from afar and just

expect Andretti to be, you know, one of the best teams. They've definitely fallen behind Chip Canassie racing and team Penske in the last couple of seasons. So there's a lot to do there. And this offseason is a big part of that. Yeah, obviously the fact that Grosjean in a few months has managed to make himself somebody with a team like Andretti Autosport wants to sign because they're not going to be down for long, are they? They will come back. That is a huge thing for a driver who, I guess, moved into IndyCar with some uncertainty because sometimes we've seen F1 drivers move over and they turn up and they disappear. Rubens Barracello is one that springs to mind from a decade or so ago. So it just shows the impact because there's a lot of good drivers out there in the US. And the fact Grogon's got in with Michael Andretti's team, just testament to the impact he's made. Yeah, for sure. Dale Coim Racing, obviously, a small family-owned outfit with very little resource. So that was a big risk for Roman to go into that team, even though it's kind of like the family atmosphere that he kind of was looking for and was hoping to kind of rekindle from his junior formula days that he was hoping was going to really help with this kind of, you know, this transition away from Formula One and to something new. He was really keen to have that family atmosphere and have some sort of friendly faces and build up relationships with the people in the team, which isn't always possible in Formula One. In Formula One, it's always possible to know people's names and things, but there's so many people in a team that sometimes it can be quite difficult to get intimate with the team and really kind of build that bond. So that was something Roman was definitely looking for this year and made the most of, but there's no secret that that team struggles or resources and, you know,

is definitely not one of the top teams in IndyCar. That's a big kind of risk that Grosjean took to come into a team like that and try and establish himself in Indycar. It's one some of the drivers have managed to make, but some, as you mentioned, have also failed. So it was a big risk, but Romance performances, the way he's approached

this year, you know, that is what has made this move work. And ultimately, the performance has

been there, you know, from pretty much on the start, to be honest, you know, I can't really

...