Who are the 2025 Indy 500 polesitters?

Prema Racing is a crew that’s probably unfamiliar to US-only race followers. They arrived to the IndyCar grid forward of the 2025 season with a two-car effort and no charters. And but, they’re now on pole place for the largest oval race on your entire planet.

So who precisely is the crew behind rookie Indy 500 polesitter Robert Shwartzman? Effectively, they might be new to ovals however they’re no strangers to open-wheel racing.

A legendary crew in junior classes 

Dennis Hauger, Prema Racing

Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool

Earlier than we actually get into it, let’s simply put their achievements into perspective for the uninitiated: Prema has over 40 driver championships, and simply as many crew championships, after competing in 30+ racing divisions since 1983. Over one-fourth of the present Formulation 1 grid have gained titles with Prema, together with Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.

Simply this yr’s Indy 500 starters, three of them have been topped with Prema prior to now (Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Armstrong and Shwartzman). Present Indy NXT factors chief Dennis Hauger additionally gained the 2021 F3 title with Prema, and the profession paths of many different drivers have intersected with the wealthy historical past of this crew. Two of the three drivers from final yr’s 24 Hours of Le Mans profitable driver lineup have raced for Prema prior to now, and Antonio Fuoco earned his first notable single-seater title with them.

For you NASCAR followers on the market, it’s a bit like TRD and their driver improvement program, or for you IndyCar followers, they’re mainly a a lot older model of HMD Motorsports.

So yeah, they’re all over the place. Prema is an Italian crew that has been in operation since 1983, and as you possibly can see by the overview above, they’ve made fairly the title for themselves in Europe and world wide by varied junior classes.

Prema first appeared in Italian F3, however it wasn’t lengthy earlier than they branched out into different divisions. And it was in Italian F3 the place they earned their first important triumph, profitable the 1990 championship with Roberto Colciago behind the wheel.

Amassing trophies and constructing names

Polesitter Charles Leclerc, PREMA Racing, second place Antonio Fuoco, PREMA Racing

Picture by: FIA Formulation 2

However because the world crossed into the twenty first century, that’s after they really started excelling as a corporation. As the brand new millennium acquired below manner, they began to select up a number of regional crowns, snagging titles in each the Eurocup and Italian Formulation Renault divisions.

Ryan Briscoe was considered one of their early champions and he at the moment works as a advisor for the crew as they embark on their first Indy 500. Briscoe, a profitable IndyCar driver who’s well-known by most US racing followers, earned Prema the inaugural Formulation 3 Euro Collection championship in 2003.

Kamui Kobayashi, an ex-F1 driver and sports activities automotive racing legend with total wins in each the Rolex 24 at Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans, earned his first main championship whereas driving for Prema.

And as Prema grew to become extra accustomed to the highest step of the rostrum, they expanded their efforts into numerous different junior divisions throughout Europe and even past. When the 2010s arrived, it grew to become tough to maintain up with all of their successes. Within the first half of the last decade alone, they captured ten drivers’ titles in 5 completely different collection. They gained each single Formulation 3 European crew championship between 2013 and 2018, and as beforehand famous, they helped launch the careers of a number of future Formulation 1 drivers.

Success in F2 and F3

Oliver Bearman, PREMA Racing

Picture by: James Sutton / Motorsport Pictures

And sure, their success consists of the direct feeder divisions for F1. They gained three consecutive F3 drivers’ titles between 2019 and 2021, and every of these drivers are doing fairly properly for themselves, nowadays. There’s Piastri, who at the moment leads the F1 world championship, Hauger, who leads the Indy NXT standings, and Shwartzman, who simply grew to become the primary rookie to earn pole place for the Indianapolis 500 in 42 years. Oh, they usually’ve additionally gained the F3 crew championship in 4 of the final six years.

They’ve earned three drivers’ titles in Formulation 2 as properly, coming in 2017 with Leclerc, 2020 with Mick Schumacher, and 2021 with Piastri. There was even a GP2 (F2’s earlier title) title with future F1 grand prix winner Pierre Gasly. Even a comparatively new collection like F1 Academy can’t escape Prema, which has gained the crew championship there in each 2023 and 2024.

Macau, Le Mans, and now IndyCar

#9 Prema Orlen Group Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 of Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz, Lorenzo Colombo

Picture by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Though we’re primarily specializing in championships, it’s additionally price mentioning that they know easy methods to win the Macau Grand Prix as properly, which is mainly the Tremendous Bowl of junior components racing. Their drivers gained that iconic occasion in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Whereas a number of different entrants have reached three wins, solely two organizations have ever gained greater than that.

And whereas they’ve competed in at the least two dozen ongoing or defunct junior single-seater divisions, in addition they went and fashioned an endurance racing division. They earned the 2022 European Le Mans Collection title in LMP2, whereas additionally securing a runner-up end in that class on the Le Mans 24 throughout that very same yr.

And in case it wasn’t clear, no, they by no means tried an oval race earlier than the 109th operating of the Indianapolis 500.

That is totally new for each Shwartzman and Prema Racing. Within the first 5 races of the yr, they’d no begins greater than sixteenth, and no finishes greater than 18th when each Shwartzman and his teammate Callum Ilott.

This Indy 500 pole feels prefer it got here out of nowhere, and whereas it sort of did, we’re not coping with true rookies right here. It additionally helps when you have got Eric Leichtle, a SpaceX engineer with earlier expertise at Group Penske, working along with your group.

Whereas nonetheless fairly the upset, Prema has been on this racing enterprise for a very long time, they usually actually know easy methods to present up unannounced in a brand new collection and instantly shake up the established order. 

Learn Additionally: