Shwartzman completes PREMA'S 2025 IndyCar line-up

Yesterday at 10:53 AM

PREMA Racing's new two-car NTT IndyCar Series has completed its roster with the signing of Robert Shwartzman to join Callum Ilott.

The 25-year-old born in Israel and raised in Russia is a familiar name within PREMA's ranks, having competed for the Italian team in FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2 – winning the F3 title in 2019 and finishing second in F2 in 2021 – – before moving into his ongoing role as Ferrari's F1 test driver.

In his lone IndyCar test with the Chip Ganassi Racing team nearly two years ago, Schwartzman impressed the team's hierarchy with his speed and feedback, but he returned to Europe to continue pursuing a seat in F1.

Despite his lack of open-wheel racing opportunities since placing behind current McLaren F1 driver Oscar Piastri in the 2021 F2 championship, Schwartzman's availability within the Ferrari family has resulted in drives with the affiliated AF Corse team in a Ferrari 296 GT3 car and, in 2024, as a full-time driver in the FIA World Endurance Championship with an AF Corse-run Ferrari 499 Hypercar where he and his teammates won the recent WEC event at Circuit of The Americas.

“I think I chose IndyCar for two main reasons," Schwartzman said. "One is a team that I have won with, I know and really trust. The second is a series that has the best racing at the moment. I like proper racing and I want to enjoy it. Obviously, the ovals will be the biggest challenge. I’ve never driven there. I just know that it’s super fast and really interesting. I believe that if we do a good job in terms of the team and car preparation, we’re going to be very strong on all the other tracks and will be quick learners on the ovals. For that reason, having people with different backgrounds is definitely a good thing. At the same time, it’s very important to have people with American racing expertise.”

Shwartzman joins the growing number of F2 graduates, including Ilott, Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard, and Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong, to have chosen IndyCar to continue their careers.

“Today I feel like I’ve mastered a lot of things," the PREMA driver said. "Working with people. The understanding of how the car works in general. How to give the engineers proper technical insight. I have more experience coming from working in F1 and Hypercar. Every experience was like a piece of a puzzle, and coming back to PREMA I feel I evolved as a driver and person. And I hope that this knowledge is going to help me out next year even if most of the situations we will face will be like a clean sheet of paper.”