Intro To IndyCar - A.J. Foyt Enterprises - Pt 2 - Santino Ferrucci

Now that we have a handle on the basis of Foyt, we have to into their senior most driver, Connecticut's Santino Ferrucci.

Here is his driver profile from the IndyCar website.

Santino Ferrucci was born in May 1998 in Connecticut, USA. He began karting in 2005 at the age of 6/7 in the United States.

In 2010, he shifted to primarily European Karting. He shifted up the ladder like many other drivers. His final year karting, he came in sixth in the KF3 European Championship. The winner that year was George Russell of Mercedes F1; he went on to win the following year as well, becoming the first double European champion. Second place in 2012 was current IndyCar Champion Álex Palou.

There was a slight directional change as Santino moved into junior formulas. His first pivot was to F2000 on the Road to Indy and not F4 in 2013. He finished fifth in the competition.

After that, he returned to European racing. He partially competed in a very stacked 2014 European F3 category and came nineteenth. That year's winner was Esteban Ocon, but Max Verstappen's performance in third place led him to be promoted to Formula 1, skipping Formula 2 completely.

2015 was another shot at F3. He finished eleventh that year; fellow driver Felix Rosenqvist finished first. Santino also competed in New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series, where he finished third; the winner is current F1 driver Lance Stroll.

Chugging along, Santino shifted into GP3 for 2016. As a category GP3 no longer exists, having been folded into the Formula 3 category in 2019. But Santino saw many of the same competitors as he had in F3. He finished twelfth in that competition; current F1 driver Charles Leclerc won.

However, Santino did find something special in 2016. Formula 1 had added a new team the year prior, an American team. As one of the very few Americans moving consistently up the ladder, Haas contracted Santino to become their test driver for 2016. This usually is a sign that the driver will be favored by the team and in line for a seat should one become available.

2017 saw more of the same. Santino competed in half of the GP3 races; that year's champion was long time competitor George Russell. The back half of the season, he was elevated into Formula 2. He came twenty second; that year's champion was Charles Leclerc.

Then comes the pivot. As you can see, Santino was very determined to make it to Formula 1 and not IndyCar. Outside of F2000, Santino hadn't hit any of the other markers on the Road to Indy, and had diligently followed the path to Formula 1. Especially with Haas so heavily interested in him, a middling performance and the correct amount of points on his Super License would have been enough.

Yet his attitude and ego ended up tanking his dream. Misconduct is frowned upon heavily in Formula 2. These drivers are meant to be at the final step before joining the FIA's crown jewel Formula 1. There is a lot more attention on them, especially with growing interest and investment into F1 by media entities. Your behavior will be monitored and critiqued within an inch of your life, and unless you are considered a generational talented by the FIA, you will be punished for it.

Santino's first big misstep was intentionally crashing into his teammate at Silverstone. This disqualified him and then had him banned from the subsequent four races in the championship. On top of that, he was found to be driving his personal vehicle between the F1 and F2 paddocks while on the phone (distracted driving), which was a danger to himself and every person in the paddock. He also chose to attempt a politican livery for his car, which goes against the FIA politics rule. While IndyCar itself has a bit of a hand-wave policy, the Road to Formula 1 and F1 itself does not.

Santino was dropped from Haas and Santino's contract was terminated by his team Trident after this series of incidents. Their official reasoning was that he was half a million Euros in debt to the team and had not paid his fees for driving. However, that money had been made available for Dale Coyne Racing.

Though he had completely blown through all goodwill in F2, his money was still green, and Dale Coyne Racing took Santino on for the two races in Detroit during his suspension and then the final two races for the 2018 season.

After that, he was elevated to full time with Dale Coyne Racing for two seasons, finishing thirteenth both times and not seeing a podium.

Following that, he spent 2021 and 2022 as a driver for hire, seeing a few races at RLL, a few with Dreyer & Reinbold, and then a few with Juncos Hollinger.

His patience paid dividends, as Foyt signed him to the #14 car in 2023. He finished third at the 500, which was the one result he had in the top ten. Always bouncing below eleventh, he finished ninenteenth.

But Foyt kept him anyway, and 2024 was a stronger performance. No podium appearances but one pole, over half of the races were in the top ten and he had two back to back fourth place finishes. He ended up in ninth in the standings.

But the ego and attitude have not subsided. While I have no problems with people showcasing emotion, Santino has a very hot head and no PR training. While I do understand we live in the USA and freedom of speech is paramount, freedom of speech does not come without consequences. He also gets physical with other drivers; while it does happen at least once, consistently is not acceptable. This is not NASCAR.

Since Santino cannot move outside of the series, he seems to be fine being the antagonist of IndyCar. For better or for worse.