Welcome back to another edition of Ask Dre! The monthly series where you, the wonderful Motorsport101 audience asks me your questions on F1, IndyCar, MotoGP and just about everything else in between!
This month, the hot button topic of Will Power leaving Penske for Andretti and Colton Herta’s F2 switch are front center, but there’s more on Red Bull Racing’s driver swaps, Guenther Stiener’s purchase of Tech3, and the state of F1’s Superlicence. Enjoy!
Your takeaways on 1) Will Power leaving Penske, and 2) Colton to F2 – Debbie
Thanks for the softball Debbie, you’re far too kind!
Will Power first. First of all, well done James Hinchcliffe for getting the big scoops on his Podcast from Power and Dan Towriss. It seems to be that the hint was right in front of us the whole time. His emotional win in Portland and his “Respect me, motherfucker” radio message was his frustration getting the better of him. It turns out he wanted three more years with Penske as far back as the end of 2024, when he was Alex Palou’s main contender for the title. Tim Cindric said he’d look into it, but never approached him again to talk about a new contract.
Power admitted he’d have taken a one-year deal if offered to him in May, but no concrete offer was ever put down. After Portland, Penske wanted Power to head to Detroit to discuss his future, but by then, Power made his own decision to leave the team. He’d had enough. 17 years of loyalty to the team, gone, as he heads to Andretti to take Colton Herta’s #26 car on a MULTI-YEAR DEAL, what Power always wanted.
My thoughts? Yeah, I really don’t know what Penske was thinking on this one. Power had a year left at the end of last year when he was absolutely still their best driver. Surely then was the time you sit down and negotiate a new deal, even if you feel it might be his last? To let it drag on deep into a contract year was asking for trouble.
David Malsher-Lopez at Racer.com reported that the entire paddock was lining up with offers but never truly believed Penske would let him go. The only team steadfast on its lineup? McLaren, who kept Nolan Siegel on for 2026, despite Pato O’Ward begging to bring him in to improve the team’s consistency. Yes, McLaren, the second best team in IndyCar this season, had an open goal to sign Will Power and turned it down.
It goes to show you that the upper management of the organisation is in disarray. I get they had to fire Cindric and the rest of the senior management after their second cheating scandal in as many years, but how was Power’s contract such a colossal oversight? How was there no communication between the camps at all? Did Penske just have the assumption that Power would just sit back and relax out of sheer loyalty?
Look, I like David Malukas, he’s a very talented oval driver and that’s clearly where Roger’s priorities lie in having three bullets in his chamber for the Indy 500. But I’m not sure he’ll ever be what Will Power was to this team, or even what Power is right now as one of the five or six best drivers in the series. And remember – He’s the only man to beat Alex Palou to the Astor Cup in the last five years.
Penske are coming off their worst season since 1999 and need to get its house back in order and decisions like that one don’t fill me with confidence about them in the medium-term either. You don’t accidentally just lose one of IndyCar’s greats.
As for Colton Herta for F2… I admit, I’ve come around a little bit on this one. When it was first announced, I think everyone involved was bonkers. As time has gone on, yeah, I get it.
I think a part of this is internet perception. People batted hard for an Andretti-led F1 team, especially with Michael’s… shall we say, cavalier approach to the sport itself. A year or so on, in the eyes of many, it’s an annoyingly sensible development plan and maybe too safe. Pat Symonds, Nick Chester, Graeme Lowdon, Rob White, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez? A Ferrari customer deal while you build your own power-unit for 2028? These are all sensible decisions to help get a new team off the ground.
I’ll give Colton this, he’s seemed dead-set on being an F1 driver for three or four years, ever since his name was thrown around as a teenager in IndyCar and winning races. He could have easily stuck around in the series, especially coming off a runner-up Championship run in 2024. But he’s shown that he’s prepared to take the big chance if it’s even for a slim possibility of an F1 seat.
The plan does make sense. He’s five points shy of a Superlicence, and they’re not going to rush his development. Sauber’s simulator is being put to use, and rather than scramble him into a punching-down winter series to quickly get his points like Red Bull did with Arvid Lindblad, he’s going to spend at least a year in F2. It’s a good idea for him to get some actual experience on a good chunk of the tracks he’ll be driving at if he gets into F1. He doesn’t need to be spectacular, a Top 10 in combination with some FP1’s in 2026 should do it. And with Bottas and Perez both on multi-year contracts, there’s no hurry for him to be great.
Of course, there’s an element of risk involved. He’s entering the Mechachrome lottery. Prema (or Rodin) isn’t a bad fit if the reports are true, but the former hasn’t won since Hungary last year, and they’re certainly not Invicta, who have been the best team since the new car arrived last year and the team that brought Gabriel Bortoleto to glory last season. If Herta’s slow to adapt in a field that will have that European circuit advantage, it could be an embarrassing look if things don’t work out, despite being a 25-year-old elite IndyCar driver with nine wins to his name in one of Motorsport’s most experienced fields.
We have the walking case study – Ritomo Miyata. One of just six men to have done the Super Formula/GT500 Japanese Double, and has come to Europe and has struggled to perform since getting here. He might be coming back for his third F2 season in 2026 and I fear he’s going to be in Motorsport no-mans-land due to the damage to his reputation. This is what Colton could be if this doesn’t work, even if I have no doubt an IndyCar team would take him back in a heartbeat if he returned. But it could be the final death sentence for an F1 team ever taking a chance on an IndyCar driver again, and this series shutout Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward already.
Like I said, I applaud Colton for taking on the challenge, and Andretti’s commitment to having an American pathway into F1. But I can’t help but wonder… you already have an oven-ready, F2 prospect in a title fight right now, who will likely have his Superlicense at the end of the year and someone who you could also take a chance with in F1 right now. So I ask, why was Jak Crawford overlooked?
Let’s say Cadillac’s plan is for Herta to be in F1 in ‘27. Who goes, Valtteri or Checo? Obviously depends on the ‘26 season but if you had to pick today? – Nikki Cerulean
If I had to make a decision now, I’d probably keep Checo. I think there’s more grounds to say that Checo was a victim of Red Bull’s rather destructive development process and that I personally think there still could be a decent driver there once he’s out of that setup. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened in Red Bull’s recent history given Gasly, Albon, Tsunoda, etc…
I have slightly more concern that Bottas was just a bit slow towards the end of his team at Sauber, and that with his experience he probably should have been putting Zhou Guanyu away a little more convincingly. I don’t think there’s a coincidence that Sauber quickly moved for Nico Hulkenberg in 2024 given how well he was driving at Haas at the time. So right now, I’m 55/45 in Checo’s favour given there’s a greater chance he’s been a victim of circumstance.
If a winning Indycar driver has to demote himself to a feeder series before he could participate in what they call the pinnacle, where or who do I throw these tomatoes I got on clearance for such a stupid system? – APoetra97 (Question of the Month)
You’re not going to like my response AP… but I feel like the frustration is misdirected. Especially given I know many in IndyCar love to punch up at F1.
I wrote a long piece about this subject back in 2022 the first time Colton Herta got F1 rumours, but here’s the thing… would we still be calling it stupid if Herta was actually consistent enough to string together two great IndyCar seasons in a row? Because sadly in the last half decade for Colton, the runner-up finish he had in 2024, looks like an outlier. IndyCar’s Superlicence payout is very top heavy and drops off quickly (40, 30, 20, 10, 8…), because Herta’s second is surrounded by 7th place this year, and two 10th places beforehand. I’m not sure whether that’s “F1 worthy” regardless of Championship quality.
A reminder too that IndyCar gets the second highest points total for any single racing series outside of F2, it’s own feeder league. More than Formula E, more than Super Formula (Arguably the nearest series to F1 in terms of downforce, and the series that gave us Alex Palou), more than the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class. So when the FIA is giving you more validation than three of its own World Championships, is that really short changing IndyCar? Tough sell to me, espeically when Super Formula only paid out 25 (now 30) when Palou came over, and he’s crushed the field overseas.
And we all know that if the FIA wanted too, they could easily tell IndyCar to kick rocks, it already did with a rival feeder in Formula Renault 3.5 back in the day by making their series worth less than F2. FR3.5 was dead half a decade later. Expecting McDonalds to promote Five Guys is an unrealistic expectation.
And one more thing – Even if we gave IndyCar F2’s system and we gave people like Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and others a Superlicense… would an F1 team actually hire them? Would Dan Towriss be so committed to the American in the American team that he’d sign Herta over Perez or Bottas, both of whom have more than a decade’s experience in the series itself?
Remember, Alex Palou has had two all-time great seasons in 2023 and 2025, and F1 didn’t even blink an eye, even when he was only 26 the first time, the age Colton turns next year. Pato O’Ward was eligible after 2023 due to the COVID “Best 3 out of 4” rule, and Zak was more than happy with Oscar Piastri, who is nine races away from winning the World Championship. And remember, Zak had to cut a cheque for $20m to tell Daniel Ricciardo not to come to work.
So as much as I think sure, you could give IndyCar more superlicense points and I’d have no issue with that… if F1 team bosses aren’t giving them consideration anyway, what’s the point?
Do you think Red Bull will keep Yuki in the main seat for 2026 or is there a chance they put Hadjar in and hope their drivability problems don’t carry over into the new regulations? – Geoff
My personal hope Geoff is that Red Bull gives Yuki another year and a full off-season to help get him up to speed. But I fear that once again the team will get itchy feet, and try to push Isack Hajdar into the factory team to see if he’ll be the one to at least get close to Max Verstappen’s pace. It’s hard for them not to be when Yuki Tsunoda is sitting 19th in the Championship, with Zandvoort being the Japanese driver’s first points in nine races.
But as I’ve said many times before, how many drivers is this team going to run before it realises that the driving talent isn’t the problem. You’re not replicating Max, he’s a generational talent. Almost everyone in your environment has stronger bodies of work elsewhere, including your own sister team. Hell, Zandvoort had Hadjar running Verstappen’s pace for nearly the entire race. That’s a cry for help.
If Red Bull aren’t going to roll the dice and spend on another big name elite driver, what’s the rush to rotate and feed another lamb into the incinerator? Just stick with your talent where they are, tell Arvid Lindblad to wait a year (Think he needs more seasoning), and see where your new car stacks up. Making a hasty call on drivers with a new set of regulations coming just seems unnecessary to me.
So expect Isack Hajdar to make his Red Bull debut in March.
What impact will Gunther Steiner’s arrival in MotoGP have, other than allowing Hervé to retire? – Tautavelman
Man’s not even retiring! He’s moving into a conusltancy role with the junior talent to help nurture the youth and have more flirty interviews with Suzi Perry.
About the same as Justin Marks owning Trackhouse, if you ask me. Remember when that felt special a couple of years ago? Big launch and a promise to lean into its American heritage… only to abandon all of that a year later with it basically now becoming Davide Brivio Racing. Even managed to borrow the old Suzuki colour scheme! *sigh*
I suspect Gunther Stiener’s arrival at Tech3 will be the same. He doesn’t know anything about running a MotoGP team like he did in F1 when he was building Haas from the ground up, and he’s admitted as such. So he’ll likely do what Trackhouse did and let someone else do the day-to-day running. So honestly, I don’t think Tech3 will actually change much, let alone the sport as a whole.
There’s an outside chance his name value and expertise might be able to attract some new sponsors, something MotoGP desperately needs, but I think Liberty Media will be more responsible for that once they get their teeth into the sport properly. Gunther Steiner, at least to my perception, isn’t as big a name as some people think he is.
What I will say though – £15m?! Holy overpay Batman, at least Guenther will get some of his mates paid when they inevitably sell up down the road.
Thoughts on how Diogo will go in MotoGP if he gets that LCR ride next year? – Eliza
I think he’ll be pretty good. Diogo has adapted pretty well and pretty quickly to Moto2. He’s looked as fast as anyone in the category for the last few races, and that says to me he’ll be fine adapting to bigger machinery. And while comparisons to Johann Zarco will likely be unfair given he’s had a really good season, there’s no reason why he can be in the points fighting against the Yamaha riders right off the bat. I think Top 15 in points is a reasonable target. Bonus points if he beats Toprak!
What would it take to get Veekay in the 12? – Diego Lopez
Well, you’d feel like the first step in the journey is there given we’re awaiting confirmation he’ll be in the #4 Foyt car for 2026. Him being in the Penske Expanded Universe can only help here right?
The thing is, I don’t think the 12 will be viable for a while. If Roger Penske still signs you young (Malukas is 23 for another three weeks), he must think you’re decent. And he fits what Roger wants most – three bullets in the chamber for the Indy 500, which Malukas was runner-up in this year. The first oval win is definitely coming, and as a bonus, he’s a Gen Z heat magnet who will get younger fans to believe in the Sith.
Nope… If Will Buxton’s to be believed, it seems the big prize could be Josef Newgarden’s #2 car. Even if you give the Nashville man every benefit of the doubt, 12th in points is Newgarden’s worst IndyCar season given the team level, and according to Will, it’s a “paddock-wide” belief that his future’s up the air and his contract expires at the end of next season. If you’re Rinus, get into the Top 10 in points and hope Roger forgets about another title extension and who knows…
The Rugby and Football England Women’s Teams seem to have exploded in popularity in the last few years, do you think Cricket can go the same way with the T20WC in 2026 or is the paywall the big problem with Cricket – Dom
I think you got it in one Dom – Cricket is a far less friendly sport to have on free-to-air television, which has been the big difference makes for Rugby and Football on domestic screens. On the Men’s side of cricket, the last two major England moments of transcendence were the 2005 Ashes (Which don’t forget, the women won too), and the Summer of 2019 with the World Cup win, with the Final free-to-air on a huge day of British Sport, alongside the Men’s Wimbledon final and British GP, and the Headingley test comeback that saved the Ashes series.
The problem is, it’s harder to get people to care about you when less people watch you. Think about how even more revered Joe Root, Stuart Broad and Sir Jimmy Anderson would be if it wasn’t for the fact that nearly all of their careers were on Sky Sports, with far less people watching than it would be if Test Series were regularly on every TV in the country?
I think there’s huge potential for Women’s Cricket in the UK. The Hundred, love it or hate it, has objectively moved mountains for the Women’s game and has created new stars like Alice Capsey, Freya Kemp, Lauren Bell and Davina Perrin. It’s the one argument most male fans of the game who have hated the 100 can’t really argue with. The double header marketing alongside the Men’s tournament has got way more families and young people through the door and giving the game a go. The highlights going out on socials and a designed YT channel with 500,000 Subscribers is a huge plus.
But part of the problem is that the International game is paywalled, and part of the reason more F2A platforms like the BBC haven’t budged is because even T20 Internationals take 3-4 hours, and most TV channels aren’t coughing up that much time unless they know it’s drawing an audience. If it goes well and England makes the final, someone MIGHT cut a deal with Sky just for the final. It happened with the Men’s World Cup in 2019, and Emma Radacanu’s US Open win. Anything less is unlikely.
The whole of cricket media and TV rights needs shaking up and the ICC doesn’t really give a shit about trying to solve it. And Sky’s bread is buttered either way. That’s why so much potential for growth is left on the table. Man is that frustrating.
And finally…
Should Pineapple on Pizza result in the Death Penalty? – Tony Smith
Absolutely.
