Former Formula 2 racer Luca Ghiotto will make a surprise debut in IndyCar this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.
He will drive for the Coyne team, who left it until the day before practice begins to confirm the identity of Jack Harvey’s team mate for this weekend.Ghiotto will be the third different occupant of Coyne’s number 51 car in as many rounds of the championship so far. Colin Braun drove the car at the season-opener in St Petersburg and the non-points event at The Thermal Club. Nolan Siegel took over at Long Beach last weekend.
Coyne confirmed Ghiotto will appear for them in the next two rounds. After this weekend’s race in Alabama the series will continue on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course two weeks later.
Katherine Legge will take over the number 51 car for the following round, the Indianapolis 500. Coyne is yet to confirm who will occupy the car for the remainder of the season.
Ghiotto won seven races over a five-year stint in F2 (and its predecessor GP2). Four of those came in his most successful season when he placed third in the championship for Virtuosi, behind future F1 racers Nyck de Vries and Nicholas Latifi.
Prior to that Ghiotto finished runner-up in the 2015 GP3 (now Formula 3) series. He won five races, four more than champion Esteban Ocon, who beat him to the title by eight points.
Aside from making a brief return to F2 in 2022 to substitute for the banned Roy Nissany, Ghiotto has largely raced in GT series. He is racing for Inter Europol in the European Le Mans Series this year, sharing a car with Oliver Dray and Clement Novalak. Ghiotto also made a handful of test appearances for Nissan in Formula E.
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Jere (@jerejj)
25th April 2024, 19:36
Among those countless drivers who reached the highest junior formula level but never got a chance in F1.
Gabriel (@gabf1)
25th April 2024, 21:12
@jerejj that’s good though, hopefully people beginning to appreciate that IndyCar offers an opportunity for feisty, high speed open wheel racing. It’s not all about F1.